


Eleutheromania

by Ryeaugla



Series: Super Smash Chronicles [10]
Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening, Super Smash Brothers, Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Battle, Betrayal, Birthday, Birthday Party, Brainwashing, Corruption, Cutting the Fabric of Space, Deus Ex Machina, Dueling, F/M, Friendship, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kidnapping, M/M, Parent/Child Incest, Possession, Rape Aftermath, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Self-Sacrifice, Space Battles, Tentacle Monsters, Torture, Unplanned Pregnancy, Weddings, body control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-10-28 07:46:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 42,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10826898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryeaugla/pseuds/Ryeaugla
Summary: Noun: An intense and irresistible desire for freedom.The lockdown has finally been lifted. Five friends go out to stretch their legs and find out that one of their own is having a birthday in the very near future. However, things go terribly wrong on the big day and a traitor rears their head, and now it's a hunt through space to save a fellow hero and prevent a terrible future from coming to pass again.





	1. The White Mage's Big Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is being posted WAY out of sequence, so there may be spoilers to other stories that have yet to be written. Watch out for those.
> 
> This has also been in the works for a while, pieced together slowly throughout my extremely long hiatus. And yes, I'll be getting back to the proper sequence once this whole thing has been posted in full.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fab five go out for dinner, only to find out that Daraen's birthday is quickly approaching. They make preparations for the big day, and things are set for today to be the happiest day of the White Mage's life. However, things quickly start to take a turn for the weird with Daraen suddenly disappearing, and when he finally shows up again, he's acting a bit strange...

It was now around the end of April. Everybody was still on edge from what had happened with Reflet and Lucina, but things were starting to go back to normal as it became clear that no further attacks were being launched. There was even talk about Reflet returning to the tournament very soon, as she was no longer in danger of hurting an unborn child, and she could still nurse the blue haired baby she had given birth to when not busy with the tournament battles.

Seeing as the mansion was no longer on lockdown, the group of five friends were finally able to leave the mansion again, and they were using this as an opportunity to celebrate with a guys' night out. After changing into casual outfits so that they were harder to recognize, they gathered near the front entrance and waited for everybody else to trickle in. Kamui was the first to arrive, and he seemed the most anticipatory for getting out of the mansion. Robin and Shulk were next, and they were also happy to finally get out again. Then came Chrom about a minute later, but there was no sign of Daraen for the longest time.

“He said he needed a little longer to change out of his outfit, but I wasn't expecting it to take this long...” Kamui scratched the back of his head and let his dragon ears wiggle around. “He told me to go ahead and meet up with the rest of you guys so I wasn't sitting around impatiently.”

“And now the rest of us are sitting around impatiently for him...” Chrom frowned slightly and began tapping his foot in anticipation.

“At the very least, we can talk among ourselves until he gets here.” Shulk pointed out. “That's something that Kamui wouldn't have been able to do by himself if he just waited for Daraen back in the room.”

“Yeah, Shulk's right.” Robin nodded. “You guys haven't exactly exhausted your topics for conversation while we were stuck inside, have you?” Brown eyes flitted between the tactician's friends, looking for somebody to pick up from his cue. An awkward silence pervaded the group for a second until the sound of leather shoes padding across the tile floor got everybody's attention, making them all look back at the owner of those footsteps, who was none other than Daraen.

“Sorry I'm late!” He shouted before taking a moment to regain his breath after having apparently sprinted the whole way here to cut down on the amount of his friends' waiting time. “I lost my glasses, and I needed to find them again.”

“I didn't know you needed glasses...” Robin commented as he strode forward to get a better look at the bright red frames now sitting upon the other tactician's face. Not once while the two of them had worked together to improve their fighting skills had Daraen ever mentioned anything wrong with his eyesight. The black haired tactician shook his head.

“I don't.” He answered, readjusting the red accessory for a second. “My eyes are fine. I just really like these glasses and I feel uncomfortable using my casual disguise without them, is all.” Looks were exchanged among the friends. They had waited all this time for a trinket that Daraen only used for aesthetics? It was a bit strange, to say the least, but at least he was ready now. With everybody itching to head out, the quintet wasted no further time pushing open the towering main entrance doors to the mansion and walking out into the courtyard to get their first scent of the outside world in days.

\---

There was little deliberation as to where they were going to go. The five of them quickly made their way to a cafe on the main strip that Kana and Shigure had found and told Kamui about and the dragon prince highly recommended for the group to congregate at sometime in the future – that future being now. As Kamui had described, it was a rather fun little joint, with half of the restaurant devoted to arcade machines that were set up and the other half to a lively, partylike environment for the eating establishment. For five young men who needed a little fun out on the town, this surely was the place to be.

“Table for five, please?” Kamui smiled as he took the lead in asking for a table for the group. The waitress was busy on the tablet she was working with as she replied.

“Table for five, huh?” She said. “It'll be a while to get a table that fits a party of that size together, so you might want to...” It was at that moment that her eyes finally darted up from the tablet and she looked at who was standing in front of her. Even with their disguises, it wasn't too hard to tell that the unusual hair styles and/or colors everybody had belonged to Smashers, and thus she gasped a bit too loudly. “You guys are tournament competitors!” She squealed just as loudly. “Oh my goodness! I'm a huge fan! I'll get a table ready for you super fast!” A ton of eyes darted over to see what was going on, and the five couldn't help but roll their eyes, facepalm, or do both at the same time.

“...Well, so much for keeping a low profile...” Chrom mumbled. Not even their disguises were enough to hide their identities. Of course, they had blown their disguises a couple of times already in previous incidents, so it was no wonder that they would have been identified in spite of them. The next time they went out, they would likely just skip the whole process of dressing down and save time, as it was a pointless endeavor anyway, as proven just now.

“On the plus side, we'll get served quickly?” Daraen countered, shrugging. He did have a point – a five man party was going to wait a long time to be served, as the waitress was about to say prior to realizing who was asking for a table.

\---

Aside from the topic of conversations in the building having become centered around the Smashers as well as fans coming up to greet them and ask for autographs every once in a while, dinner was actually rather calm in spite of the incident. Everybody ordered their meals with little hassle, with Robin abstaining from ordering anything aside from a glass of water due to his Mechon body not being able to process food.

After that, the group split off for a little while to watch the arcade machines and even play a little. Even though they technically did have a lot of money to work with thanks to Master Hand's competitor stipends (and Chrom's Assist stipend, though less than the others', still being considerable), they hadn't thought to bring a lot of extra money that wouldn't pay for food because, with the exception of Kamui, none of them really knew what to expect as they came to this place. The extra money the Hoshidan prince had brought along didn't last a group of five all that long, however.

Therefore, once everybody had their fill of fun, they congregated once more at the table where their food had been and started to talk about their opinions of the place.

“I'm actually kinda shocked that things are this relaxed in spite of us being here.” Kamui noted, eyes flitting about to see just how many people were still looking at them.

“It must be because there's a lot to do here anyway without us being around.” Robin added on. “I mean, I can tell that some of those games can probably rob hours and hours without somebody realizing it.”

“And lots and lots of money as well.” Chrom added on, chuckling.

“Maybe it was a good thing I had only brought a little bit with me.” Kamui was also giggling a little. “I mean, I'd rather not blow this week's stipend all at one place, even if we'll still get all our basic commodities from our suites.”

“Still, I'm sure it would be fun to bring a bit more money next time.” Daraen's smile was almost the largest it had been since they had all met one another. “I bet this place would be great for a birthday party as well. If you guys wanted, we could probably try that with my birthday that's right around the corner.” It was at that moment that the atmosphere seemed to freeze over immediately, with the other four staring at the black haired tactician like he had suddenly grown a second head. Of course, he wasn't oblivious to this strange change of behavior, and so he raised an eyebrow before speaking up again. “...What? Did I say something wrong?”

“...Daraen, you never mentioned your birthday was really soon!” Robin finally broke the awkward silence a moment later as he stood up quickly, banging his metal hands upon the table in front of him. “I don't think any of us actually knew when your birthday was!” He then turned to the others. “...DID any of you guys know?” A chorus of disbelieving noises came from the others.

“I think Robin's right.” Shulk nodded. “I didn't know, and from the sounds of things, neither did Chrom or Kamui. Why haven't you mentioned this sooner?” The black haired tactician's face reddened a bit, though it was somewhat hard to tell with the weird lighting conditions of the cafe room.

“S-sorry...” He looked away. “I shouldn't have said anything. I hadn't mentioned my birthday prior to now because I never really thought of it as a big deal.” Chrom reached out and placed a hand on Daraen's shoulder.

“Of course it's a big deal.” He said with a smile. “I mean, your birthday only comes once a year, and all your friends get to celebrate the anniversary of you being born.” Daraen gently brushed Chrom's hand off his shoulder and shook his head.

“It's really nothing to get excited over...” He mumbled. “After all, I was born for a terrible purpose, and I don't like reminding myself of that reason...”

“Chrom has a point.” Robin chimed in. “I'm in the same boat as you, having been born for the purpose of Grima using me as a vessel. However, I've realized that my life doesn't revolve around being the Avatar of Grima. Not anymore. Therefore, I've come to accept that my birthday is important as a result, and you should too.”

“Come on, tell us when your birthday is!” Kamui tried to lighten the mood up, beaming widely as he badgered his roommate for a date. “That way, we know when to celebrate and have a day devoted to our close friend!” Everybody's eyes were focused on Daraen, and eventually he realized that they weren't going to leave until he told them. He groaned heavily, then mumbled something.

“...fth...”

“What was that?” Not even Kamui's more sensitive dragon ears were able to pick up what was said, and he wiggled them as he tried to process that barely audible word.

“I said it's on the fifth, okay?!” Daraen practically yelled this time, making poor Kamui's ears shoot skyward and he stiffened up with a look of shock on his face, not having anticipated Daraen to all but shout in his ears.

“That's May 5th, correct?” Shulk took over, trying to give the poor Hoshidan prince a moment to recover. Daraen calmed down and looked away as he responded.

“It's not April 5th, so it's gotta be May...” He mumbled, though at a volume that was audible by everybody this time. Chrom reared his hand back and gave the black haired male a hearty slap on the shoulder, almost knocking Daraen's glasses off his face from the impact and making him take a moment to slide the accessory back onto the bridge of his nose again.

“In that case, the four of us will make sure to throw you an awesome party on the fifth for your birthday!” The cobalt haired lord was grinning from ear to ear as he spoke. “We're gonna make sure that your birthday is a day you'll never forget, you hear?”

* * *

About a week later, everybody at the mansion had heard about the fact that it was about to be Daraen's birthday. Tomorrow was the big day, and birthdays were always a big deal at the Super Smash Brothers Mansion. Decorations went up with the birthday Smasher's aesthetic and the whole place was festive and exciting. Daraen's face had quickly turned the same color as the inset of his hood when he realized that everybody was getting ready for his birthday like this, and he tried to hide his embarrassment by putting up the hood on his cloak.

“I-I told you guys not to make such a big deal about my birthday...” He whined. “Did you really have to put stuff up all over the building like this?” Kamui had a wide grin plastered onto his face as he wrapped his arm around the tactician's shoulders.

“Oh come on, Daraen.” The Hoshidan prince said. “Your birthday only comes once a year. Why not embrace the fact that we wanna make this as awesome of a birthday for you as we can?”

“Besides!” Chrom wrapped his arms around both Daraen and Kamui and squeezed them affectionately. “You've probably never celebrated your birthday with a party, if what you said last week is true. We just want to make up for all those years you've spent downplaying your birthday by throwing a huge party this year. That's not a terrible thing, is it? Remember what I said last week? That we're gonna make sure your birthday is a day you'll never forget? Well, we had to go all out for such a memorable day!”

“C-Chrom... Kamui...” Daraen's face all but blended into his hood now and his voice had become timid out of embarrassment. “Just knowing you guys care is enough for me...”

“Well, the decorations are up now anyway.” Kamui finally let go of the White Mage after Chrom stopped hugging them. “I don't think anybody's in the mood to take them down until after your birthday party is over.” Daraen mumbled something under his breath before taking a deep sigh.

“Ugh, you guys win...” He murmured. “You're right, I've never really made a big deal out of my birthday... At least, as far as I can remember. I suppose that if I indulge just this once, it'll be all right.” If Kamui's tail was out, it would have been wagging excitedly.

“That's great!” He said with a smile. “After the Smash matches we've got lined up tomorrow, the rest of the day is yours!” Just then, he started waving to somebody behind him. “Hey, Robin! There you are!” Sure enough, as soon as Daraen turned around, the white haired tactician was walking up toward him with a smile on his face.

“Hey there~” He waved back to Kamui. “I heard you needed my help, so now I'm here.” The Hoshidan prince pushed past Daraen and immediately thrust a big red bow into the cyborg's arms that he grabbed off a nearby table. There were long red and white streamers hanging down off of the bow that splayed out for many feet in both directions. “Whoa!” Robin wasn't expecting something so big to be placed in his arms. “What in Naga's name do you want me to do with this?”

“Fly it up to the rafters and hang it there!” Kamui commanded. “After you've got the bow secure, hang the streamers so that they droop down a little, but not too far.” Robin gave an irritated sigh.

“Kamui, just because I can fly doesn't mean I can be used as an errand boy...” He grumbled. The poor prince's ears drooped after hearing Robin's complaint.

“You mean... You won't help make Daraen's birthday party look a little bit better?” He sounded quite sad. “I mean, you don't have to... I'll make somebody go find a ladder.” Robin rolled his eyes and extended his drones' wings.

“Fine.” He sighed. “I'll do it because I'd rather not anybody risk getting hurt by climbing onto a ladder tall enough to reach the rafters.” With that, he grabbed a nearby stapler and then floated through the air up to the rafters. The long ends of the ribbon snaked upward after him, threatening to smack somebody should a breeze pick up. It didn't take long before Robin did something about the ends of the ribbons, however, stapling them up to the beams coming off the rafters so that they no longer flapped about haphazardly. Kamui and Daraen looked up at the result of Robin's work (and Daraen's still-drawn up hood somehow managed to avoid falling off his head as he did this). One side of the ribbon was red and the other was white, and so Robin twisted the ribbon each time he set it up to be stapled so that it alternated between red and white. As such, the alternating colors made it look even more festive.

“Looking good!” Kamui grinned as he complimented Robin's work once the tactician had lighted down and was in easy earshot once more. “I didn't even think to ask you about the twist in the ribbons, but it looks a hundred times nicer that way.”

“Heh, only the best for my old apprentice's big day~” Robin winked at Daraen, causing the black haired mage to blush slightly again.

“A-ah... Maybe I should go see how things are doing elsewhere.” He mumbled. “You guys seem to have everything ship shape here, after all.” Right before Daraen could leave the room, however, Kamui perked up as he remembered something he needed to tell his friend.

“Oh yeah!” He called out. “Daraen! Before you go anywhere else, you should head over to Corrin's room!”

“Corrin's room?” Daraen repeated, finally pulling his hood off his head as he looked back in confusion. “What does she want?” Kamui shrugged.

“Beats me. But I think it's something having to do with your birthday being tomorrow.” He then turned away and chuckled. “I mean, you're not going to avoid her on your birthday, are you?”

“Gods, no!” Daraen shook his head briskly, face turning a few shades redder again. “I'll head over to see her right away!” And with that, the White Mage left the room and hurried off to the Nohrian princess' bedroom.

\---

There was a knock at the door several minutes later. Corrin's ears perked up at the sound, wondering who could be trying to get her attention right now. “Who is it?” She called out.

“It's me, Daraen!” Came the muffled response from the other side of the door. That was enough to get Corrin to sit up immediately and she hurried over to the door to greet the tactician waiting there.

“Dari!” She threw herself onto him immediately, and he quickly returned the hug. “I see you heard from Kamui that I wanted to talk to you before things got crazy tomorrow with your birthday party.” Daraen chuckled as he moved back a step so he could look into the princess' scarlet eyes and he took her hands into his own.

“For you, I'd make time regardless of how busy I was.” He replied, a coat of blush highlighting his face. “Now, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about, Cory?” She giggled gently and started blushing herself, all while avoiding his eyes when she spoke up again.

“A-ah, yes... You see...” She began, stumbling over her words. “I hope it's not too selfish of me to do this, but...” Eyes darted in each direction down the hall before she spoke again. “...Actually, let's head into my room.” Corrin pulled Daraen inside her bedroom a bit too briskly, and he very nearly fell face first onto her. However, her tail appeared and stopped him before he could fall over, helping him keep his balance.

“Cory, what's this all about?” Daraen asked, very confused. “You're acting pretty stra...” It was at that moment that Corrin pushed herself onto him and cut off his words with a kiss. Her tail wrapped up around Daraen's back, as if to stop him from moving back on her. They spent several seconds locked in that kiss before Corrin broke it off and Daraen gasped for breath. “W-what the...?” He asked.

“I'm so sorry for being so forward, but...” She cupped his hands into her own before continuing. “I want to marry you.” Daraen did a double take and his face started turning the same color as his hood again.

“M-marry me?!” He wanted to take a step backward, but Corrin's tail wouldn't allow for it. “We've only really known each other for a couple months, though! Is that really enough time to make that kind of decision?” Corrin pushed herself into the black haired tactician's arms and embraced him.

“I know it really hasn't been long.” She sighed. “But... I've never felt so drawn to anybody else, both here and back in Nohr. I'm just so happy when I'm with you, Dari. I just thought that, before you got a ton of presents from everybody else, I wanted to give you something first, and I wanted it to be something special too. And... what's more special than... a family?” Daraen gasped as Corrin mentioned wanting to have a family with him. He was completely shocked by how sudden this felt, but at the same time, he could feel genuine emotions that he really hadn't experienced too much of as well. As such, he sighed and finally hugged her back, wrapping one arm around her torso and the other around the back of her head.

“I... actually feel the same way.” He whispered into her ear. “You're very special to me, Cory. I didn't come here to find love... But I'm not exactly opposed to finding it here either.” A thought then occurred to him. “...Wait, what about when the tournament is over? Won't you have to go back home to Nohr?” Corrin gently shook her head even though Daraen was still holding onto it.

“Honestly, I'm not really needed there anymore.” She stated. “The war is over and I'm not worried about being needed to succeed to the throne any time soon. After all, I'm sure my big brother Xander will have many long, successful years serving as king. Therefore, I don't think they would mind too much if I came back with you to Iris.” She looked up into his eyes and smiled. “I could even help you with the war efforts there. I'm good with a sword, after all.” Daraen shook his head.

“I wouldn't want somebody as precious to me as you are to get involved with the things I do back home.” He frowned. “It's not an easy life I live.” Corrin pouted.

“Come on, Dari.” She frowned, pushing against him a bit so that she could move her hand up to his face. The dragon princess' hand was a bit cold, especially compared to Daraen's still-flushed face. “You know better than anybody that I'm strong and can hold my own on the battlefield. I'm a tactician much like you. If we work together, we'll be able to protect everybody, I just know it.” Daraen knew he was losing this battle.

“...All right.” He sighed. “I guess it wouldn't hurt to have another sword helping me out.” After sighing, he ended his thoughts. “Lady Corrin of Nohr, I would be honored if you could be my wife.” The dragon princess grinned widely as she hugged Daraen even tighter, almost to the point where it started to hurt him since she seemed to forget her draconic strength in her happiness.

“Yes!” She giggled cheerfully. “I'll be yours forever, Daraen!” Corrin then stopped hugging Daraen before dragging him further into her room, pushing him onto her bed, and then jumping on top of him and curling up around him like a giant, affectionate cat. Daraen couldn't help but hug her back after the whirlwind of events started to sink in. Her request had been so sudden, but in the end, he knew that he wouldn't have wanted this any other way. His birthday hadn't even begun yet and he already was feeling on top of the world. Perhaps celebrating his birthday wasn't such a bad idea after all.

* * *

_So, in the end, you decided to ignore my warning._

What the hell are you talking about?

_I told you that if you didn't give me what I wanted by today, I would destroy everything you love._

I'm not afraid of you. There are people who actually care about me now. I'm not in this alone anymore.

_How much will they really care about you after I'm finished with you though?_

_\---_

Corrin's eyes flickered open the next morning to see that she was in an empty bed. She found it quite odd how Daraen had managed to slip away from her without even giving any indication that he was leaving. Not only that, but she had been curled up around him, so the fact that Daraen had gotten out of her grasp without disturbing her left the Nohrian princess a bit puzzled. However, she was not too concerned about Daraen slipping away, as she knew he had a birthday Smash match to prepare for today, and that was probably where he had gone. She thought it was a bit unfair that he needed to fight on his birthday, but she wasn't in charge of that. Besides, after the Smash matches was when the big party was going to be held.

Eventually, it got to a point where Daraen was missing for hours. He was not reported to be at the training grounds getting ready for his match today, nor did anybody see him around the mansion grounds. It was now about an hour before the White Mage's big battle, and Master Hand was just about ready to send out a missing person alert throughout the mansion so that somebody might end up finding Daraen before he had to miss his match.

To everybody's surprise, Daraen reappeared at the battle nexus about ten minutes before his fight began. Immediately he was questioned by Kamui, who practically tackled his roommate out of irritation as he walked over.

“Where in the Dawn Dragon's name have you been?!” The Hoshidan prince hissed. “We've been looking all over for you! The birthday boy's not supposed to go missing on his birthday!” For several seconds, Daraen said nothing. He just stared into Kamui's scarlet eyes intensely, making the dragon prince take a slow step backward as his ears folded back in worry. “...Daraen?” He asked quietly. “What's with that weird look? You're kinda freaking me out...”

And then, as if nothing had happened a moment prior, Daraen snapped out of whatever funk he was in and returned to normal, laughing awkwardly and rubbing the back of his head before speaking. “Sorry about that...” He chuckled. “I had to sort out a few things back home real fast. The Chrom from my realm wanted to see me today to give me a special birthday present.” All at once, Kamui's fears evaporated and his demeanor went back to being relaxed and friendly.

“Ah, I see!” The dragon prince smiled. “You had everybody worried, but we're all glad to hear that everything's all right.”

“Anyway, I should probably go up onto the stage to get ready for the main attraction now. I'll see you guys later – and some of you even on the battlefield~” With that, Daraen gave a wink before running off in the direction of the main stage.

Almost as soon as Daraen was out of earshot, Shulk began to groan loudly and fell to his knees. Immediately, Robin hurried over and started worrying about the doubled over seer.

“Shulk, what's wrong?!” He demanded in a panic. “Are you all right?!”

“I-I'm having a vision...” Shulk whined in response. “But... it's being disrupted... I can't see anything clearly... I just see blurs and silhouettes and can't make anything out. And my head feels like it's been split open with an axe!” Upon further inspection, Robin noticed that it looked like purple flames were burning at the corners of Shulk's eyes and immediately assumed this was a side effect of Grima's corrupting magic that was causing the poor seer so much pain.

“Hang on.” Robin stated calmly, digging into his robe and pulling out a Nosferatu tome. He quickly flipped it open to the page he had left off on and muttered the spell quickly and quietly under his breath until his hand started glowing purple. A second later, he placed his metal limb on Shulk's head and started gathering dark magic into his hand. This went on for several seconds before Shulk fell forward, as if he had just passed out. “Shulk!” He gasped as he stopped the spell and pulled the other off the ground. “Are you all right?” Thankfully, his eyes fluttered open after only a couple seconds, revealing the indigo hue they now possessed.

“I-I'll be okay...” He said quietly. “Thank you... After you used that spell, the pain stopped. I guess we just waited too long this time, is all...” Robin gave a huge sigh of relief after Shulk finished speaking.

“Thank goodness we have a way to stop this.” He said with a smile. “Do you think you'll still be able to participate in Daraen's birthday match?” Shulk nodded his head.

“Yeah, definitely. I'm already feeling better, after all.” As if on cue, Master Hand's voice started booming from the nearby television, getting everybody's attention.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” The disembodied hand announced. “Today is a special day for our friend Robin the White Mage. It's his birthday!” He then turned to Daraen. “I'm sure you remember how this works, right? After all, Lucina's birthday was only a couple weeks ago. You'll pick three other competitors to join you for a For Fun Smash Match with a fun little twist that will be revealed once the match begins.” Daraen nodded his head and then moved forward to the microphone in front of him.

“I do remember, yes.” He said calmly. Several fans started clapping and cheering, and Daraen took a moment to let the cheers subside before speaking again. “And I know exactly who I want to have join me for this match.”

“And we already know too.” Kamui chuckled. Glances were exchanged among the dragon prince, Shulk, and Robin, as they were totally expecting to be called to join their friend on stage. Chrom wasn't a competitor, so that made the decision of deciding between the group of four a lot easier.

“I would like to compete with Shulk, Male Corrin, and...” Daraen hesitated for a second, wincing a bit before he finished his sentence. The last name he gave was pretty unexpected. “...Female Corrin.” The crowds started cheering afterward, while Robin just stared at the television in shock.

“...He picked Corrin over me?” He frowned. “I mean, I guess he's really close to her, but...” The four of them were supposed to have a little fun and entertain the crowds today, but now Robin had been relegated to the sidelines to let the White Mage's girlfriend join in instead.

“Don't take it too personally.” Kamui chuckled awkwardly. “Maybe he just wanted the spotlight to be on him, so the fact that you two have the same battle style was the reason he picked Corrin over you.”

“But you and Corrin have the same battle style too!” Robin protested. Shulk replied this time.

“Yes, but neither Corrin nor Kamui are the birthday boy, either.” He stated. “Like Kamui said, don't take it too personally. I'm sure he'll apologize for changing his plans at the last minute before the party or something.” Kamui and Shulk's reassurances were enough to get Robin to stop worrying and admit that they had a point. As such, he reluctantly bade his two friends farewell and started walking toward the Smashers' Skybox where other competitors who weren't participating in matches hung out.

Corrin was the first to get to the nexus where the match competitors got ready for their upcoming battle, and as soon as Daraen came in behind her, she walked up to him and immediately demanded to know what he was thinking. “What in the Dusk Dragon's name are you doing, Daraen?!” She barked. “I was working on something to give you after this battle, but you called my name instead of Robin's!” The White Mage chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head.

“O-oh...” His face was growing redder by the second. “Sorry about that, Cory. I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself anyway, right?” After pouting for a couple seconds, Corrin gave a long sigh and walked over to her fiance, embracing him with a hug.

“...You know I can't stay mad at you, Dari.” Once she finished speaking, Corrin let go of Daraen. “Well, seeing as I'm here now, I might as well fight to the best of my ability.” Her eyes then darted over to the room's entrance, as both Kamui and Shulk had arrived now too.

“So, all four of you are here now.” Master Hand then announced before any further conversation could begin. “We just rolled the special rules for this battle, and it's been decided that all items will drop from party balls. So open as many party balls as you can to get to the items inside and use them to your advantage. A Smash Ball might even pop out if you're lucky! If you're ready, stand on your player plates. Robin, you're Player 1 because it's your birthday, Shulk's player 2, Male Corrin's player 3, and Female Corrin's player 4.” Everybody quickly moved into position so the match could begin. Master Hand made one last announcement before starting the countdown. “The arena for today is Battlefield, and it's a two stock match. Let's warp in and get things going!” The four competitors then disappeared into the arena so that they could make their entrances. “Three! Two! One! Go!”

Robin was idly watching the match from the skybox with several other competitors. He looked a bit bored, even though the fighting was anything but boring. Honestly, he had been totally expecting to be out there fighting right now, but instead he was sitting here due to a last minute change of plans. Even though Kamui and Shulk had made sensible arguments as to why he had been excluded, it still bothered him anyway.

“Player 4... defeated!” Master Hand's voice rang out some time later. Robin wasn't even sure how many minutes had elapsed by this point or who was winning, as he had been absorbed in his thoughts this whole time. He didn't even care who won at this point. Instead, he just continued to mope about.

“There's the Smash Ball!” The disembodied hand's voice pointed out not too long after Corrin's defeat. “Who's going to be the one to get it?” All three remaining competitors were now trying to get their hands on the glowing rainbow colored orb that swayed about in a random pattern. Several seconds later, the voice answered its own question. “And Robin's broken the Smash Ball! Will he use it on one of his friends? Or will they knock it out of him first?”

Robin's attention only became drawn back to the battlefield when he heard a bloodcurdling scream a second later. He quickly recognized the voice as Kamui's, and gasped as he noticed the Hoshidan Prince kneeling on the ground with magic that looked like the Smash Ball's aura but in a much darker shade swimming around him. What was going on?

“...Kamui?!” Shulk had all but stopped in his tracks when he noticed his friend in pain. The seer then looked over at Daraen and noticed that similar dark magic was swirling around his raised arm that still had the Smash Ball in hand, though it didn't look like it was hurting the White Mage like it was Kamui. “...Daraen, what on Bionis is going on here?!” He demanded. “Is this your doing?!”

“ _You're coming with me, Child Who Could Challenge the Gods..._ ” Daraen's voice was monotone as he said that line. Shulk's heart did a flip upon hearing that. There was only one being who called him by that title. Before anybody could storm the field or Shulk could run away from the imminent threat, however, Daraen shattered the Smash Ball in his hand, and, with the exception of Daraen and Kamui, the colors of everything became muted. Everybody was frozen in place due to the dark magic.

However, that wasn't the end to the evil magic. Daraen then turned to Kamui and thrust his hand out toward him. “ _Dragon spawn. Use the Fire Emblem to tear the fabric of reality._ ” He commanded with that same voice. Kamui screamed with pain as he was forced back to his feet and raised the Omega Yato over his head. A second later, he swiped downward with the blade, causing the air around the sword's trajectory to split aside. Even though time was frozen for him and he couldn't run away, Shulk could still see what was happening. He knew that this was trouble.

His fears were confirmed when a large claw poked through the hole Kamui made, tearing it open even wider. Soon, a gigantic hand was reaching through the hole, quickly looming over the young seer. Before Shulk knew what was going on, he was completely enveloped in blackness.

Robin saw everything that was going on from the skybox, watching in horror from far away. Now he understood why Daraen had excluded him from the match – he could have interfered with this dark magic! He could do nothing but watch as the dark claw poking through the tear in this realm reached out and snatched up both Shulk and Daraen before just as quickly disappearing. The tear still remained after the claw disappeared, although it had started folding back into place once time resumed. Kamui fell forward, having passed out from being manipulated by Daraen's evil magic.

“ **SHULK!** ” Robin's resulting scream of horror could be heard throughout the entire arena. He quickly opened up the outer door to the skybox that led into the audience stands and immediately spread his drone wings. Without wasting any time, he zoomed toward the battlefield to attack what remained of the tear with his Levin Sword in an attempt to reopen it. Even though there wasn't a schema for it, Robin was acting purely on his fears, not thinking about what he was really doing. He kept attacking thin air as the seam repaired itself, removing any trace of what had just happened within a couple minutes. Once it was completely gone, Robin slowly dropped to the ground. He stood looking up at where the magic had been a moment ago for a second as tears started rolling down his cheeks.

“...Shulk...” He whispered in a barely audible tone before sinking to the ground and screaming at the top of his lungs. “ **AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! SHUUUULK! NOOOOO!!** ” After that, he devolved into loud, incoherent crying. The man he loved was truly gone. Robin had been powerless to save him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 6580 words. Now THAT's a cliffhanger. But yeah, reason I began putting this story up today is because it's Daraen's birthday! And what a day it is! Anyway, notes:
> 
> 1\. This chapter started off as three separate chapters, so if it seems a bit disjointed, that's why.  
> 2\. Think somewhere like Dave and Buster's. That's pretty much what kind of place the five go to at the beginning.  
> 3\. In case it seems rather out of nowhere, there's actually more buildup to that marriage proposal in the stories between this part of the sequence and the previous story. Again, this is being posted out of order, so some subtleties get thrown out the window as a result.  
> 4\. The only reason why there's no play by play of the Smash match is because Robin's not paying attention to it (at least, up until things start to go awry). And yes, this was (loosely) based on an actual Smash match that was played. Except in the actual match, it was Kamui who was defeated first, not Corrin, and Daraen just sicced Chrom on Corrin with the Smash Ball rather than made evil stuff happen.


	2. The One Left Behind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin's completely distraught because of Shulk's kidnapping and Daraen's betrayal, but there's still hope that things can end well. He's being put in charge of trying to get Shulk back, and he doesn't plan to fail.

Five minutes had elapsed already, and there had been no sign of Robin having moved from the spot where he had sank to the ground after the tear disappeared. He could be confused for being dead if it weren't for the fact that one could see his back rising and falling slowly if they looked hard enough.

The tears had stopped falling by this point, not because Robin had gotten over what happened, but because there were no more tears to be cried. No, he would never get over the attack just now, he just knew it. The white haired tactician had been hit with too many feelings at once to ever be able to purge them fully from his mind. Right now, he was dealing with fear, loss, despair, betrayal, and anger, among many other emotions. The last time he had experienced such strong, dark emotions had to have been when Cordelia had died. Even then, this was much worse, despite the fact that Shulk was likely still alive, wherever he was.

Seeing as police wanted to investigate what happened, Robin was forced off the battlefield. Paramedics wanted to get to Kamui, due to what had happened to his body during the horrifying event, and so other Smashers were in charge of carrying Robin away from the scene afterward, seeing as he was so distraught that he refused to walk on his own. However, as soon as they got back to the mansion, something clicked in Robin's head.

The decorations strewn about the front entranceway were still hanging up. After today's match, the Smashers were supposed to be having a birthday party for Daraen, after all. It was his birthday, and they had expected to come back home and have a nice party celebrating their anniversary of their friend's birth. Instead, Daraen was now missing and so was Shulk. They couldn't celebrate the birthday party even if they wanted to with the birthday boy gone.

But the decorations were still there. All of the reminders of what had happened still existed. This was enough to set Robin off. His eyes flickered to red as he finally stood on his own before activating the drones on his back and brandishing his Levin Sword. He began screaming at the top of his lungs as he started flying around and attacking the decorations and throwing lightning around. People hurried away from the scene, not wanting to get electrocuted. “FUCK YOU DARAEN!” Robin screamed over and over as he zoomed around in his rage. “TAKE THIS! AND THIS! AND SOME OF FUCKING THIS!”

A bunch of the other Smashers called out to the angry tactician to try to stop him from continuing his rampage, while others put their bodies between him and things that they didn't want ruined, such as the birthday cake or expensive artworks and sculptures that were in the area year round. However, it became clear that Robin was only interested in destroying anything that reminded him of Daraen, so the ones protecting the normal decorations ended up moving to stand before the birthday decorations instead.

“What the hell is going on here?!” Master Hand's voice rumbled through the building after some other Smashers went to him and revealed that Robin had gone insane and was rampaging throughout the building. Soon, he appeared before the cyborg tactician. “Robin! What are you doing?! You're going to ruin the corridor if you keep this up!”

“Shut the fuck up!” He screamed back. “I'm purging this place of Daraen permanently! He's not worthy of having anything to do with him remaining around here! Now fuck off!” Master Hand could be seen curling himself into a fist - nobody had ever told him to 'fuck off' before. All of the Smashers had a certain level of respect for the owner of the building, but right now, Robin wasn't showing any of it. Realizing how angry Master Hand was, all of the other Smashers took a couple steps backward away from the glove, not wanting to get mixed up in whatever punishment Robin was surely about to receive.

“That's enough!” The disembodied hand fired a beam of magic at Robin, immediately causing him to fall out of the sky. “I know you're angry because of what happened to Shulk, but that doesn't give you any reason to start being disrespectful to me!” He then beckoned the others to come forward again. “Somebody bring him to the training room and lock him in there until he calms down.” It was the safest place for somebody to destroy stuff and vent without making too much of a mess. Normally it didn't have a lock on it, but one could easily put something heavy like a chair in front of the door to prevent it from being opened. That was what the other Smashers ended up doing before leaving him alone for a while.

When Robin woke up again after being knocked out by the spell, he didn't immediately recognize that he was in the training room until he saw a white and red target pop up in front of him. White and red... Right now, those colors triggered an angry response out of Robin, seeing as they were the same ones seen on Daraen's robe, and he smashed the target without thinking twice. This happened a few more times before the tactician realized he wasn't accomplishing anything and slumped down onto the ground to just cry his eyes out for several minutes.

“...Shulk...” Robin sobbed in a barely audible voice a short time later. “I couldn't save you. I couldn't fucking save you!” He smashed a metal fist into the ground out of anger. “I can't fucking believe that Daraen would betray us like that! He was our friend!” After another moment, he shook his head and continued mumbling in his misery. “...No. Daraen was never our friend. He was a Grimleal spy who had infiltrated our group and pretended to be our friend so we wouldn't suspect him of spying! He fooled all of us!”

“Robin...” A gentle yet sad voice came from nearby. The cyborg tactician finally lifted his head out of the ground and turned to face its owner, who was none other than Kamui standing there behind the thick glass window that separated the training area from the rest of the mansion. He still looked a bit unsteady due to what had happened to him earlier. “I can't say I know how you're feeling right now – at least, not to the same extent you are.” He then shook his head. “But you're not the only one who was betrayed today.” A hand moved to the dragon prince's chest before he continued. “Daraen's been manipulating me ever since we first met in preparation to use me for that heinous purpose. He cursed me and prevented me from being able to reveal his secrets until now. Had I not been cursed, I might have been able to stop this... And I can't even imagine how horrible Corrin feels right now, considering she apparently proposed to Daraen last night and this happened not even a day later...” Robin gasped. The fact that Corrin had proposed to Daraen was news to him, and now after everything that had happened, she would be without the one she loved the most.

“Kamui...” Robin mumbled as he continued staring at the ground. “Did I ever tell you about how I lost my wife Cordelia?” He wasn't exactly sure what had clicked in his mind to bring her up at this moment in time, but it wasn't like he could take his words back now. The white-blond Hoshidan noble shook his head.

“Can't say I remember you telling me that.” He answered. “I know you've mentioned losing a wife, but the actual story about how you lost her isn't something you've told me.”

“Listen up then...” And then Robin relayed the story of Cordelia's death to Kamui, who was in complete shock by the end of it, his ears folding back in sadness.

“That's utterly gruesome...” He muttered in a low voice. “So you thought you could never love again after being that badly scarred, didn't you?” Robin nodded slowly.

“Yeah, that's right,” came the reply. “And, as you've probably guessed, Shulk changed that.” A sad chuckle came from him before he continued. “I had him pegged all wrong when we first met. I thought he was dumb and carefree and somebody that an intellectual man like I just wouldn't want to give the time of day to. But when I finally met him in person, my first impression got completely shattered. I realized he was kind, smart, and well-read, and I felt attracted to him immediately.” He then looked down at his Mechon body. “I gave up my human body for him. I had to come to grips that I had the body of a machine after losing my human body for his sake, and I originally hated it.” Kamui's ears perked up just then after hearing one key word in Robin's monologue just now.

“Wait... Originally?” He asked. “Does that mean you actually like your Mechon body now?” Robin nodded his head.

“After being stuck with it for so long, I realized that... I'm happier as a Mechon than I was as a normal human. I have abilities that many normal humans could only dream of, such as flight, super strength, and durability just short of invincibility.” He laughed sadly for a second before resuming. “I used to think I was painfully average before this happened to me. All of the other Smashers had something unique to them, whereas I was just a normal guy who could come up with strategies. But now, I'm a guy who can come up with strategies who also has flight, super strength, and super invulnerability powers who flies a giant purple dragon robot. That's not normal at all!”

“You finally have something that nobody else can replicate.” Kamui replied, ears wiggling with happiness. For the first time since Shulk's kidnapping, Robin finally smiled, even if there was still sadness lingering behind it.

“With this body, I'm sure I'll be strong enough to fight Grima.” He stated. “I'll comb the entire multiverse to find Shulk again and fight the Fell Dragon myself if I have to. Anything to save the man who changed my life for the better.”

“I didn't realize Shulk was that important to you before now.” Kamui noted. “I mean, I knew the two of you were very close, but I hadn't realized how close. And having been friends with Shulk for these past few months, I know as well as you do how kind and selfless he is. He must have been an amazing lover to you.” Robin nodded.

“Definitely.” He sighed. “He's come to my rescue many times, putting his life on the line to save me. In more peaceful times, he's incredibly affectionate, and he always curls up next to me in bed despite having his own bunk. Feeling his dry hair softly brushing against my chest is one of the most relaxing sensations that I've come to love.” Yet again Robin's eyes darted to the ground. “When I first received this body, I hated it. I thought I was some kind of dangerous machine that would destroy everything if given half a chance. But Shulk... he insisted that I'm still human. He did everything in his power to keep me from hating my body too much.” Several seconds were devoted to sniffling before he spoke again, although still no tears fell. “I... I don't know where I would be right now if it wasn't for him... Six feet under, more than likely.”

“Then... I take it that you'll even go as far as risk your life for Shulk's sake?” Robin rose to his feet and slowly walked over to the window that Kamui was standing in front of.

“Yeah, I'll definitely be fighting.” He stated with determination present in his voice. “I refuse to sit on the sidelines in this battle. I will save the man I love from remaining in the hands of a tyrannical dragon for too long.” Kamui's ears perked up and he smiled back at the tactician.

“That's the spirit!” He cheered. “You and your Face Unit will show that dragon who's boss and save Shulk! I just know it!” The prince then started walking toward the door to the training room and opened it up. “Now I know you've had a really long day, so you should go get some sleep. I'll tell Master Hand and the others that you've calmed down and went to bed so that they don't panic when they see you outside of the training room.” Robin nodded slowly in response.

“Yeah, I'm completely exhausted... Crying for over an hour really takes it out of you...”

“In that case, I only hope that you'll manage some kind of restful sleep.” Robin frowned slightly upon hearing that wish from his friend. Kamui had a point: how restful was the tactician's sleep really going to be after witnessing that kidnapping? Surely he would have nightmares about it for a while. Not only that, but Shulk wasn't even around to help Robin get his mind off of things. This might be the hardest night for sleeping since reawakening after Cordelia's death. Either way, he had to try.

Robin slowly found his way to his room in Newcomer Hall, purposefully trying to avoid seeing anybody on the way there, as surely somebody would be alarmed seeing him out and about after that tirade earlier. Thankfully, he managed to avoid being detected and slithered into his room quietly. A moment later, he dragged himself over to the bunk bed and climbed into the bottom bunk that was his to begin with before staring up at the bars that held the mattress of the other bed over him... Shulk's bed. Normally it went unoccupied because the Monado wielder liked sharing a bunk with Robin, but now it was going unoccupied for a completely different reason. And that just made Robin sad again. He sniffled quietly as he continued staring up at the bottom side of the mattress until he eventually fell asleep.

* * *

 

Robin had no idea what time it was when he was awakened by the sound of knocking at his door. Seeing as he was very tired from expending so much energy as a result of yesterday's activities, he wasn't exactly in the mood to pull himself out of bed. A metal limb moved over his face as he spoke.

“Shulk, can you get the door? I'm still half asleep...” He grumbled. When there was no response for over a minute, Robin finally remembered what happened and sat up quickly. Involuntary tears started rolling down his face as that terrible scene where his beloved one had been stolen away replayed in his head. Even from the skybox, it was easy to see the pure fear in the Monado wielder's eyes as he looked up at the giant figure of darkness looming over him. All those negative feelings were coming back at the same time.

Before he could get too caught up in his own emotions, however, a gentle yet sad feminine voice could be heard at his door. “Robin, I know you're in there... I need to talk to you...” The voice belonged to none other than Corrin. As such, Robin pushed himself out of bed and walked slowly over to the door to open it. The Nohrian princess was looking rather disheveled, her eyes were puffy and red, and her ears were folded back. From the looks of things, Robin wasn't the only one who had slept terribly last night, and he could definitely sympathize with her.

“...Sorry about that, Corrin.” He said softly before gesturing for the princess to enter his room. “I wish I could offer you something good to munch on, but I don't eat and Shulk's not really a fan of decadent treats.” Corrin shook her head.

“That's all right.” She said softly. “I'm not exactly hungry, after all. I didn't come here for a snack anyway.” After sighing, she rested a hand on her stomach before continuing. “I wanted to talk to you about what happened. I know you already spoke to Kamui. He told me that he told you about Daraen and I. But... there's more to it.” Robin blinked in confusion before speaking.

“More to it?” He said. “I can tell you're feeling as betrayed as I am – perhaps even more than me, considering you loved him enough to want to spend the rest of your life with him. Likely without knowing about his heinous scheme.” Corrin winced and looked away from Robin's face before speaking.

“Of course I didn't know!” She sobbed. “If I did, I wouldn't have stayed silent, even if it was for him! Daraen blindsided me too!” There were several seconds of awkward silence between the two of them before Corrin resumed, speaking very quietly when she did so. “Anyway, like I said, there's more to why I'm so upset. Yes, everything we've talked about already and the obvious stuff is killing me, but there's one more thing that just makes this far worse for me...” She took a deep breath and then looked into Robin's eyes again. “Robin... I'm pregnant with Daraen's child.” This reveal was enough to make the mage do a double take.

“What?!” He exclaimed. “Already? But you just...” Before he finished speaking, the cyborg sat back in his chair with a look of horror on his face. “...So that's the real reason why you wanted to marry him. You didn't want your child being born out of wedlock...”

“Yes...” She sighed quietly. “And now, not only will I be giving birth to an illegitimate child, but also to the child of a traitor... This baby will have both of those stigmas to deal with growing up...” Considering Corrin was a princess, she really feared for her and her child going forward. Robin spent several dumbfounded seconds trying to figure out how he was going to be able to comfort Corrin. This wasn't going to be one of those 'it'll be all right' moments, he was sure of it. There were some major issues going on here.

Just then, there was another knock at Robin's door, causing both the dragon princess and the tactician to look over at the entrance. “Who's there?” Robin asked, seeing as this was his room to begin with.

“It's me, Reflet.” The voice of the female tactician came from the other side. “Master Hand needs you in his room right this second. It has to do with Daraen.” Not wishing to get blasted again by the powerful glove, Robin quickly rose to his feet and looked over at Corrin.

“Sorry I couldn't really help...” He said. “I mean, all I really did was sit here and allow you to get that off your chest.” Corrin smiled regardless.

“No, that's fine.” She said. “I'm sure that whatever Master Hand needs you for is very important. I guess I can talk to Reflet or somebody else.” The princess opened the door, surprising Reflet on the other side, who was not expecting Corrin of all people to answer Robin's door.

“Oh, Corrin!” She exclaimed. “I didn't realize you were visiting Robin. Is everything all right?” After sighing, the Nohrian gave her answer.

“I'd like to talk with you about some things in private, if you don't mind.” She said. “I already told Robin what I'd like to tell you, but I haven't told anybody else. Can you keep a secret?” Reflet blinked twice in surprise before responding.

“All right...” She said quietly. “I guess that gives us something to do while Robin deals with the business Master Hand wants him for.” Reflet looked over at her male counterpart and nodded, to which he nodded in kind before dashing away in the direction of Master Hand's room.

Slowly, Robin opened the door to the giant glove's room. The last time he had been in here was when he had first been introduced to Daraen, so it felt like things were coming full circle. Not long later, Kamui strode forward and grabbed Robin by one of his metal arms.

“There you are!” The Hoshidan prince exclaimed, still holding onto his friend. “Come on! There's something you need to see!” Robin had no reason to not go along with the dragon prince, and so he let himself get dragged forward so that he was now in front of Master Hand's desk.

“Greetings, Robin.” Master Hand sounded a bit wary as he spoke. “Are you feeling better today?” The tactician rubbed the back of his head before answering.

“A little...” He sighed. “I mean, it's kinda hard to get used to suddenly not having somebody around that I've lived with for several months, especially knowing that he was kidnapped before my very eyes...”

“Well, you might not have to deal with that for much longer!” Kamui replied excitedly. “Show him what we've found, Master Hand!”

“I was just getting to that...” The glove drummed on his desk impatiently for a second. “Anyway, here.” Master Hand turned himself palm-side up and allowed magic to form the appearance of a red and purple marbled sphere floating in the middle of what looked like outer space to show up in his palm. “There's been immense magic activity happening in this realm.” He explained, though Kamui quickly took over a second later.

“That's one of the Deeprealms from my world.” The prince chimed in. “They're little pocket realms where time flows differently than it does here. My kids actually grew up in two of said Deeprealms. If it weren't for them, Kana and Shigure would still be in diapers.” He then shook his head quickly. “But I digress. This Deeprealm showed here is different. Instead of time flowing faster within, it's flowing _slower_. It might take a year here for a week to flow in that realm, for example – we don't know just how much time is different there. Reason is because it's protected by a barrier of dark magic that's really hard to get through.”

“We had Reflet come up here earlier to verify that the dark magic protecting this realm is indeed belonging to the Fell Dragon Grima.” Master Hand spoke up again. “After all, he's the one who took Shulk, right?” Robin nodded his head briskly.

“Definitely.” He replied. “He's been eyeing Shulk for several months now, so it would make sense that he'd be the one behind the attack yesterday.” The tactician then sighed deeply and shook his head. “I just wish I knew the reason why Grima has been pursuing Shulk so diligently... to the point that he'd send in a spy for the purpose of kidnapping him, too.”

“Well, I had you come up here to meet with me because I want you to head the charge against this protected Deeprealm.” Master Hand closed his palm and the magic disappeared. “I can't resume the tournament without putting some closure to yesterday's incident, as now many people are feeling unsafe. If we can get Shulk back, the paranoia can be mitigated and people won't have to worry about a sudden attack again.” He paused for a second before pointing at Robin. “You have a heavy stake in this mission, so it only makes sense that you would head the charge, Robin. Plus, this will give you a good opportunity to flex your tactical muscles again as well as put that Mechon of yours to good use. After all, the barrier doesn't have anywhere to stand in front of it, meaning we will need ships to fly around it and find a way in.”

“So we can only attack with ships...” Robin repeated, a metal hand curling around his chin. “That means I'll need the cooperation of others who have their own ships, such as Samus, Meta Knight, and Captain Falcon.”

“I know they'll help you out.” Kamui responded, giving a gentle smile to his friend. “After all, I know that they won't want to sit idly by and wait for their fellow competitor to be rescued. Most of us here are heroes. Even those who don't want to help for Shulk's sake would probably be willing to do so for the sake of getting the tournament back up and running.” Kamui had a point. Even if people weren't willing to do the job for Shulk's wellbeing, there were other poignant reasons to get the Monado wielder back.

“All right.” Robin nodded his head. “In that case, spread the word about the plan to invade that Deeprealm. I've got something to take care of before I go, but I'll join up to head the charge.” And with that, Robin waved to his friend and the disembodied hand before leaving. His next destination was the garage where all the large vehicles were parked.

\---

Upon getting to the garage, Robin strode over to a large purple machine that was laying down like an animal curled up to sleep in its nest. The cockpit was wide open, allowing him to crawl inside and sit in the seat. Almost immediately, wires began snaking up the sides and back of his chair, snapping into their respective places for the machine's manual drive system to be activated. All the lights flickered on as well, as if Obsidian Face was a beast that was waking up from a nap. Seeing as it didn't have legs, the purple bot quickly took to the air, floating in place idly. And then, a voice echoed throughout the interior.
    
    
    “Greetings, Master. Manual control system has been activated. What brings you here today?”

“I know you're not exactly equipped to be moral support, Obbie, but I wanted to get a few things off my mind anyway.” Robin sighed, leaning his head back against the headrest and looking up idly at nothing in particular. “You see, the Heir to the Monado was kidnapped yesterday.” Robin didn't know if Obbie knew Shulk as anything but 'the Heir to the Monado', as that was what Egil had programmed him in as due to not knowing Shulk's name, and thus he referred to the blond swordsman as such for the machine. “Somebody who I thought was a friend was actually a spy the whole time, and his goal was to infiltrate this place for the sake of stealing the Heir to the Monado away.”
    
    
    “Do you require my assistance to rescue the Heir to the Monado, Master?”

“Yeah.” Robin nodded as much as he could for how he had been strapped into his seat. “We finally found where he's being held captive, but there's nowhere to land. We need flight-bound machines to go through with the operation.”
    
    
    “I am always at your service, Master.”

“Thanks, Obbie.” Robin was feeling a bit more confident now that he might be able to successfully rescue the man he loved. He was finally getting to do good with Obsidian Face, as he and Shulk had hoped he would be able to do with the former death machine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4537 words. Originally I was planning to put a Shulk/Daraen chapter as chapter 2, but I felt like it made more sense having this Robin chapter be chapter 2 instead. Anyway, notes:
> 
> 1\. There's going to be a lot of cursing in this story. Not only from Robin, but Daraen too (mostly from Daraen, actually). I'm pulling out all the stops because this story is rated E.  
> 2\. Cordelia's story is glossed over only because it's already been told in a previous part. See Flames of the Phoenix if you don't remember/haven't read what happened.  
> 3\. Obbie is pronounced _"AH-bee"_. It's an affectionate nickname for Obsidian Face that was given to the Mechon by Shulk when it was rebuilt, mostly because "Obsidian Face" is a bit of a mouthful to say all the time (five syllables as opposed to two with "Obbie"). Again, Obbie's reconstruction happened in a part that has yet to be written.


	3. The Parallel Monado

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shulk's just been kidnapped while in the supposedly safe haven of the Super Smash Brothers Mansion, and by none other than a supposed friend of his, Daraen. However, there's more than meets the eye when it comes to Daraen, but not even he knows the whole truth.

Shulk's indigo eyes flickered open slowly, trying to take in his new surroundings. After all, one minute, he had been staring at a giant black claw quickly looming toward him, and in the next, he had blacked out and now found himself on the ground in a dimly lit area. This certainly wasn't the Battlefield stage anymore. Not even when it switched to its nighttime aesthetic was it ever this dark... or purple and red, for that matter. Something told him that this was not somewhere he wanted to be right now, and that immense feeling of dread pushed him to his feet so that he could fumble around in the low light to figure out where he was and how to get out of here.

“...Hello?” He called out into the abyss, which echoed his voice back several times over. “Is there anybody here?” For the longest time, nobody replied, and he continued to stumble around in the dark, hoping to find anything that might provide a clue as to where he had ended up.

Finally, an answer finally came. “So, this is where you ended up...” A familiar voice echoed from behind Shulk, causing him to gasp and turn around quickly to face the voice's owner. It was none other than Daraen, although his body was hard to see in the dim light of this place. Prior to this afternoon, Shulk would have felt immensely relieved to see the black haired tactician, but now, a deep feeling of anger welled up at the sight of him instead. Daraen's reappearance here made all the memories come flooding back.

This was all his fault. He was the one who summoned the dragon claw that had torn open a hole between dimensions. The Smash Ball contained immense power, but it was still hard to believe that it was strong enough to give one the power to rip through dimensions, even if Kamui had also been used as a catalyst. Daraen's actions this afternoon had made that clear, however.

“You...” Shulk hissed, reaching over his shoulder with his right hand to curl around the ruby weapon that usually sat there on his back. However, his hand only wrapped around empty air, as the Monado was missing. He was unarmed, and that only made the powerful feelings of dread worse. “...Where are we?” He ordered. “And where is my sword?”

“A prison realm.” The black haired tactician answered succinctly as he looked around idly. This was only apparent to Shulk because he heard Daraen's cloak moving. “After Grima found out about the Deeprealms from Kamui, he carved out a realm of his own to use to encapsulate people he doesn't want escaping – namely you.” Shulk couldn't help but elicit a gasp and take a step backward in shock when he heard this proclamation. A realm specifically created to hold him captive? Why was he so important to Grima that he would go as far as make this place just to imprison him?

Except there was one major thing that it seemed like Grima forgot. A chill went up the seer's back, and it wasn't out of fear or dread. “...Okay, so that answers one of my questions...” He spoke slow and uncomfortably. “But this prison realm surely doesn't have any Ether if it's a part of Kamui's world. How long does Grima plan on keeping me here, especially if he's taken away my sword...?”

“You mean this one?” Daraen dug into his robes and pulled something out of them. A moment later, the Monado's center plate started glowing a cool blue as a symbol appeared in the center of it. The sword finally provided some semblance of light to the otherwise dark area, allowing Shulk to see the kidnapper's face once more. It was bad enough that the Monado cast strange shadows onto Daraen's face due to the angle of the light, but something else about this situation bugged Shulk.

“The centre plate...” Shulk could feel his hands curling into fists. “It's glowing. You... activated the Monado?” Sure, anybody could activate the Monado, but what was notable about how Daraen was holding the sword was the fact that it wasn't electrocuting him. The Monado was a fickle weapon that only allowed its wielder to use it without harm, but it seemed to be okay with Daraen wielding it. How? Before answering that question, a low laugh came from the black haired man as he stabbed the ruby sword into the ground.

“There's a lot you don't actually know about me, Shulk.” Came his dark voice. “In fact, you don't really know anything about me at all.” The glow from the Monado continued illuminating Daraen's figure as he reached up and grasped the tear drop shaped earring that hung from his right ear. “Truthfully, there was never anybody named Daraen at all.”

Just then, Daraen yanked on the teardrop gem of his earring, quickly tearing it away from the base it was attached to. It started glowing in his hand for a couple seconds before it became clear that he hadn't just torn his earring off randomly. Instead of a broken piece of jewelry, the black haired tactician was now holding onto the Monado in his right hand.

Except the Monado was already dug into the ground in front of Daraen and providing the light source for this small area. Shulk's eyes fully constricted as he took in what had just become apparent to him, somewhat in disbelief.

“You have... a second Monado?” He gasped. “And you're telling me that your earring was a Monado this whole time?!” Daraen's eyes narrowed slightly as he lowered his arm to his side, ruby blade still in hand.

“...No.” He grumbled. “This isn't a Monado – it's a well made replica, but a replica all the same. It was given to me by my father before he disappeared out of my life forever, leaving me to being raised by Grima. This fake has the ability to change forms to suit my needs; sword, earring... Heck, even those glasses I wore out to the cafe last week were another form of this same replica!” Shulk was immensely confused by this proclamation. A replica Monado given to him by his father? It didn't add up to the stories that he had heard about the Avatar of Grima.

“...But your father is Validar, isn't it?” Shulk questioned. “As far as I've heard from Robin, Validar isn't a Monado wielder – and rightfully so.” He didn't exactly want to think about what a madman like what he had read about and heard from Robin would do if he had possession of such a powerful weapon like the Monado. Not only that, but the sword didn't even originate from Plegia, so there was no way the Grimleal sorcerer should even be able to wield it.

Daraen looked annoyed as he shook his head briskly. “Don't play these games with me.” He rumbled. “I already told you, there's actually nobody named Daraen. I'm not the man you think I am.”

“Then who are you really?!” Shulk was just about ready to walk forward and grab his own Monado that was currently stabbed into the ground, but he wanted to hear this out before brandishing a blade against this man that he had thought was a friend. Daraen did not answer verbally, but instead leaned forward and put his hands into his face, as if he was going to cry and muffle it with his palms. However, no such crying came.

Instead came yet another reveal. When Daraen's head rose back up so his eyes were on level with Shulk's yet again, it was now clear even in the strange lighting being provided by the sword in the ground that there was a bright green ring present in only his right eye that hadn't been there before. Shulk's heart sank into his chest as he recognized the intense, one-ringed stare that he had definitely seen before.

“Your eyes...” He said quietly, taking a step backward. “I've seen those eyes before... You're the one who impersonated me... the one who destroyed the electronics shop, killed Voniluk, and trashed Klaire!”

“That's correct.” Daraen nodded slowly. “That damned Machina was threatening to ruin everything. He wanted to recreate the Face Unit for Robin, and I killed him to try putting a stop to it.” Shulk's surprise quickly turned to anger as he took a step forward and started yelling at the black haired tactician.

“Well, your attempts to suppress Obsidian Face's recreation failed!” He barked. “I recovered the plans from Klaire's mangled frame and used them to continue the project! You almost got me thrown in jail with your plan!” After a moment of angry silence, Shulk continued shouting, this time sounding quite distressed. “But why?! Why would you impersonate me to murder innocents?! Why did you want to stop Obsidian Face from being rebuilt?!” Daraen did not answer immediately, but instead looked away from Shulk first.

“I was ordered to do so.” He said flatly. “Mother told me that I needed to stop the building of that Face Unit under any circumstances.”

“...And you failed.” Shulk growled. “Obsidian Face was rebuilt before your very eyes.” After thinking about what Daraen had said, he realized there was another hole in the 'Avatar of Grima' facade that had come up. “Now what's this about your Mother? The Avatar of Grima's mother is supposed to be dead.” Daraen finally turned back around before he started laughing evilly.

“Isn't it obvious, you idiot?” He chuckled. “It's the whole reason why we're here. My mother is none other than the Fell Dragon Grima. I'm not the Avatar of Grima – I'm the Avatar's son.”

“The Avatar's son...” Finally things were starting to make sense. “So that's what you meant by 'there was never anybody named Daraen'... You made up a story to get everybody to think you were the Avatar of Grima when you were not.”

“Correct.” He laughed again. “My name isn't Daraen – not even close. No, my real name is...” He paused for dramatic effect. “...Mark Lowell-Soss.”

Shulk could have sworn he had just been shot through the heart hearing that name. His eyes widened as far as they could go. He was completely speechless for a moment and in utter shock. At the same time, it explained everything.

“Daraen... No, Mark...” Shulk began quietly. “I think I understand everything now. Your ringed eye, your ability to use the Monado, your claims, and even why you brought me here to this prison realm...” He looked down at one of his hands that was glowing in the blue light of the Monado for a second before looking up again into the other's eyes. “Mark... I am... your father, aren't I?” Just then, Mark moved his arm so that he now had his Monado right up in front of Shulk's face, threatening to open it up and send a beam of Ether right into Shulk's head, even if it would actually bounce off his face rather than bisect his skull.

“And a terrible father at that!” He shouted, still holding the sword aloft. “You and Grima created a monstrosity! I'm half human, half Homs! The human half of my body can't create Ether, and the Homs half only creates half as much as I need to survive!” Mark's arm began shaking, but he continued pointing his sword at Shulk's face all the same. “...So what did you do to mitigate this? Create a fake version of your special sword for the sole use of keeping me on fucking life support my whole life before vanishing for good with the real one, that's what!” The light from Shulk's Monado was not the greatest, but it still betrayed the tears that were falling down Mark's face as he continued to lecture his father. “You didn't care about me at all! You left me to suffer at Grima's hands my whole life... Seventeen years now I've been her slave!”

“...Seventeen years?” “Daraen”'s birthday party was supposed to be celebrating his twentieth birthday. “What's with the three year disparity?” Mark sobbed briefly before he continued.

“...I lied.” He cried. “Just like how I lied about my identity as the Avatar of Grima. Today's not my twentieth birthday, but my seventeenth. The only part that was true was my actual birth date.” Mark took another second to sniffle before continuing his story. “I was born on May 5th of next year. I'm just like Lucina in that regard: we're both from the future. She traveled to the past to prevent Reflet's death, which would begin a series of events that would lead to Grima taking over the multiverse as well as my conception. I came from the future to stop Lucina on behalf of Grima – to stop my half-sister from killing me. I needed to murder her and/or Reflet, and to capture you so that you will bring my monstrous self into existence again in this timeline...” Shulk felt immensely bad for Mark. From the deluge of tears rolling down his cheeks, it was clear that his heart hadn't been in the right place for this whole set of circumstances and that he acted solely because he was Grima's puppet.

Shulk gently pushed aside the Monado that was in his face and stepped forward to wrap his arms around his future son and give him some kind of comfort. Mark gasped as he felt Shulk's body press against his own, and he dropped his sword, causing it to clatter onto the ground a second later. It took a moment, but Mark finally reciprocated the show of affection by squeezing Shulk back and sobbing into the seer's sweater.

“...What happened?” The raven haired tactician said a couple seconds later in a soft voice as he kept holding onto his father. “What changed between now and a year from now? You're one of the kindest, most selfless people I know. A far cry from my future father, who only did the bare minimum to keep me alive before vanishing from my life and leaving me to suffer...” Shulk slowly shook his head.

“...I don't know.” He replied in a voice just as soft. “You're right, that doesn't sound like something I would do. Even if you came about in less than ideal circumstances, you're still my son. I would think that I would take care of you to the best of my ability. Perhaps being imprisoned by Grima changed something about me...”

 _Perhaps we'll find out very shortly~_ A sultry voice suddenly echoed from every direction at once. Both Shulk and Mark gasped as they moved back and grasped their own Monados, with Shulk finally pulling his out of the ground where Mark had shoved it in, whereas Mark picked his up off the floor.

“Where you, Grima?!” Mark shouted as he looked around for any sign of the dragon hiding in the darkness. A second later, a dark laugh could be heard all around the two of them before a response was given.

 _I'm disappointed in you, Mark._ Grima sighed. _You've done so much wonderful work for me thus far, but at the last moment, you decide to betray me? Did your father play on your sentimentality?_ Another laugh. _Don't forget which of your parents left you before you could even remember their face and which one raised you from birth into the strong young man you are now._ Mark flinched visibly when the Fell Dragon brought up that point, but it was Shulk who answered.

“Perhaps I left because it was YOU who I couldn't deal with, not Mark!” He shouted. “I don't know why ANYBODY willingly allows themselves to become your playthings!” Grima's laughter quickly became low growling after she heard the taunt.

 _Brave words, Child Who Could Challenge the Gods..._ She hissed. _However, you seem to have forgotten one thing~_ At that moment, black vines shot up from the floor underneath both Shulk and Mark, immobilizing both of them as they were lifted off the ground and simultaneously causing the two of them to drop their Monados from the surprise attack. They struggled and thrashed about, trying to weasel out of the dark magic that was holding onto them, but neither of them could make any kind of progress toward freedom. A second later, the dragon's vessel finally appeared before them, hood half covering her face, but her six red eyes glowing in the darkness.

“You're in my realm now, children~” She laughed. “I call the shots here, and I declare both of you as my prisoners! Ahahaha!”

* * *

It took all of two seconds for Mark to realize that something was wrong. Of course, a good indication of being in a heap of trouble would be to awaken to the sensation of vines slithering down one's arms and up one's legs, and that was exactly what he was feeling right now. They felt cold and clammy and it was just an overall very unsettling feeling for the young tactician. He tried to pull away from the disgusting sensations as they slithered further toward his torso, but the evil plants held fast. Mark grunted loudly and thrashed about, but he couldn't make any progress against his binds. Of course, all of this wriggling about got the attention of Grima, who had been standing nearby the whole time, and she laughed evilly to announce her presence.

“What's the hurry, my dear son?” She teased, causing the black haired tactician to gasp loudly. He could hear her footsteps approaching, but the dim light of this place made it hard for him to see anything but the red glow of Reflet's possessed eyes. Finally, she made it clear as to where she was by reaching out and curling a hand around Mark's face, causing him to gasp again from how cold her hand was. Grima hardly ignored it, however, and laughed again as she continued to hold onto the young tactician's face. “You don't have anywhere to go anymore. Your friends at the Super Smash Brothers Mansion will never accept you back after your betrayal. Why don't you stay here with your beloved mother and father, then?” Mark growled under his breath before finally giving a response.

“...As if I have any other options like this.” He muttered with disgust. The hand that was holding onto his chin moved down to his throat and squeezed it a bit – enough to cause Mark's breathing to grow raspier, but not enough to choke him.

“If I recall correctly, this is exactly what you wanted, isn't it?” Grima sounded slightly annoyed, though she tried to mask it under that usual teasing tone she used. “I remember your words exactly: 'I want my family to finally be together at last'. Don't you recall saying that, Mark?” He took a deep breath before replying.

“...In that case, where is my father?” Mark asked with a raspy voice because of the hand holding onto his throat. It was removed a minute later as Grima started laughing, taking a good minute to do so before snapping her fingers. As she did, a bunch of torches lit up with purple flames around them, finally shedding light on the surroundings while giving an ominous feeling because of the color of the flames. Sure enough, the increased lighting provided the answer to Mark's question.

“Don't worry, he's right here~” Grima chuckled as she moved over to where Shulk was hanging. He too had his arms and legs wrapped up by black vines to prevent any kind of movement, but he was currently still asleep. Mark's eyes constricted at the sight of his father.

“SHULK!” He screamed, again pulling on his binds to no avail. He could feel them creeping further down his body as he moved and making that horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach magnify, but he still flailed anyway. At the same time, apparently Mark's shouting had caused the elder Monado wielder to finally and slowly reawaken.

“Nnngh...” Shulk mumbled under his breath as his eyes flickered open. He too didn't need long to realize that something was up and he started thrashing about as well. “Agh! What on Bionis is going on here?! I can't move!” Grima laughed at Shulk's obvious distress as she moved around behind him and curled her hands around his face, making the poor young swordsman gasp and flail around even more in a vain attempt to get Grima to let go of him.

“Oh dear~” She teased. “Are you really wishing to run away on your son again? Do you really hate him so much that you would abandon him yet again?” This caused Shulk's struggling to cease and a hurt look found its way to his face as his eyes locked onto Mark several feet away.

“I...” He began quietly. “I... don't hate Mark. I understand that what he did in the Smash match was under your orders and necessary to preserve himself...”

“Then stayyyy...” Grima's voice turned into a snakelike hiss as she dragged out the word she spoke. “Stay here with your son and wife and we'll be a happy family~” Mark did a double take at this proclamation, and he shouted yet again.

“Shulk, don't listen to her!” He screamed. “You don't love Grima! You love Robin! She has no plans for us to be a 'happy family' either, so don't fall for her guile!” Grima's six glowing eyes leered at Mark, and he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end at the sight of it.

“You're being a very naughty boy, Mark.” She shot back in a low voice. “Don't talk back to your parents. I'm grounding you, but only if your father agrees.” Grima then lowered one arm around Shulk's waist and used the other hand that was still on his face to turn his head to the side so that she could reach his lips with her own. A good minute or two was spent with the two of them locked in a kiss that only grew in intensity the longer it lasted. Had Mark been there during the kidnapping at the Dragon's Table, he would have recognized this as the same spell that Grima had used once before in an attempt to brainwash Shulk. However, there was no Robin this time – nobody was going to run up and attack the Fell Dragon with a Monado to stop her from going through with the entire spell.

Finally, Grima broke off the kiss. Shulk opened his eyes once more, as they had shut in the middle of the spell, revealing that they were glowing bright red and purple flames were shooting out the sides of his eyes several inches outward. Mark's heart sank at the sight of this, as he assumed this was the final stage of the curse that Shulk had been fighting off for months and months and he was now firmly placed in Grima's evil grasp. It was sad to see that he had lost the battle for control over his own life. As if to make things even worse, Grima decided to rub in her victory.

“Mmm~” She sighed. “Just as delicious as I remember them being back at the Dragon's Table~ Of course, this time, we didn't have any distractions from our moment here. That fool Robin is such a spoilsport. He doesn't matter anymore, however. Isn't that right, my darling?”

“Yes, Lady Grima...” Shulk answered in a monotone voice. Mark knew that this wasn't his father anymore, but merely a shell of a once-wonderful man. A slave that would help Grima accomplish whatever evil goals were in mind.

“That's a good boy~” Grima teased. Her eyes then focused on Mark yet again. “Now, back to the question I posed before... Shall I ground our son, my dear? He's been a very naughty boy.” A slow nod was the almost reflexive response.

“Yes, Lady Grima...” He answered in the same monotone as before. Mark's heart sank again, this time out of fear for himself. What exactly did Grima have in mind for him in order to 'ground' him? It didn't take long for him to find out.

“Ahaha~” She giggled. “Well, if you insist. Mark, you're grounded. Sit in time out and think about what you've done!” The dragon's vessel then snapped her fingers, and Mark felt the vines around his limbs lurch as he got thrown toward the ground. Instead of smacking into the floor, however, he fell through it and into a void that had opened beneath him. The sensation of falling continued for a couple more seconds before it finally ended and the tactician fell onto a cold, hard floor that the void had spit him out onto.

“...Ugh, fuck...” He mumbled as he sat up. For some reason, the vines around his arms and legs had been removed after that whole incident, allowing him to move freely once more. It soon became clear that there wasn't anywhere for the black haired tactician to go, however. Upon looking around the dimly lit room, three of the walls were solid brick and the fourth wall was covered in the same evil vines that had been used to restrain him, serving as prison bars. So this was the 'time out corner' that Grima had set aside for him. Mark reached up to his right ear and found that his Monado had been reattached, sitting there in its crystal form once again. As such, he pulled it off to turn it back into its sword form and started swinging at the evil vines with the Ether blade.

He attacked the vines for several seconds, hoping that the magic restraints would give and he could attempt to find his way through the prison complex to find his father once more. However, the vines didn't even look scratched by the Ether after Mark stopped to check his progress. Realizing it was a vain attempt to gain freedom, Mark gave up and wandered over to the wall opposite the vines to sit down and wallow in his misery. He curled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, crying from the immense hopelessness now present in his heart.

“...Fuck!” He eventually cried out. A second later, his eyes wandered to the sword that was still in his right hand. Rage started filling his heart as he stared into the center plate of the Monado. “God fucking dammit! This is all your fault, Father! I'm not strong enough – I'll never be strong enough to escape Mother! All because you gave me a weak replica that's only really good for keeping my stupid life going! Well, fuck that! I'm done living this tortured life!” And with that, Mark tossed his Monado as far as he could, having the blade land on the other side of the room. He spent several seconds afterward crying once again, but he was soon interrupted.

 _Mark..._ A voice that sounded suspiciously like Shulk's filled the room. It made the young tactician gasp and look around for the source of the voice. Eventually, his eyes fell upon his Monado, noticing that there was now a figure being projected up from the center plate. _Mark..._ The voice called out again. Yes, the voice was coming from the holographic figure on the blade. Mark stared at the figure in surprise for a moment before quickly crawling over so that he could get close to this strange projection that he had never seen before. The hologram showed a man who was wearing a hood up over his eyes as if to disguise his face, but the voice's pitch and Bionite accent betrayed the identity of who this was.

“...Father?” Mark breathed quietly. “I didn't know that the Monado could be used as a hologram projector...” It didn't seem like the projection was really responding to him, however, as it started prattling on without paying any kind of attention to what Mark was saying.

 _First of all, happy birthday, my dear son~_ The projection of Shulk began speaking. _I'm recording this message to play for you once you turn of adult age. I bet you didn't know that Homs are considered adults at age seventeen, did you?_ Mark did in fact know, though. Shulk had mentioned it prior to now, although it was in passing. This elicited a chuckle from the tactician.

“Heh, you told me that, Father~” He replied despite knowing that the projection wouldn't respond. After that part of the message he already heard, Mark knew in an instant that this was his true father speaking – the one from the future who had supposedly abandoned him, as opposed to the present counterpart who had just been brainwashed by Grima. He didn't sound all that terribly different from the present Shulk, in fact, likely because he would have been only nineteen years old at the time of recording, which was the same age he had been when Mark was born and, subsequently, the same age he had disappeared at. The projection continued on a second later without responding to Mark's interruption.

 _I'm hoping that by now, you've escaped your mother's grasp and are now fighting against the forces of darkness as a hero. I want you to use your Monado for good, not evil, after all. And speaking of which, your mother has likely told you that the Monado you use is a replica due to its lack of power, correct? Well, let me show you something..._ Future Shulk then reached out of the projection's range before bringing his hand back into view with a Monado in hand. _You see this Monado in my grasp? This is actually the replica. And now..._

Suddenly, the Monado in Future Shulk's hand disappeared into a bright flash of light before he turned back toward the front. _...It's gone. Returned to Ether. The truth is, I created that replica in order to throw Grima off. I wanted her to assume I was giving you the replica while I held onto the real one._ He then nodded slowly. _Yes, I'm sure you're smart enough to understand what this means. The Monado that you're holding right now? It's the real thing. I'm giving you my Monado._ Mark gasped loudly and his eyes grew wide. He had been using the real Monado this whole time and didn't even know it.

But that brought up another question. Shulk was still a Homs. If he was giving Mark the real Monado and he had destroyed the replica right there on camera, what would happen to him? Of course, this was the next thing that the prerecorded message would address.

 _Yes, this means exactly what you think it means, Mark._ Future Shulk looked down at his hands before continuing. _It means that, by the time you see this message, I will be dead. For about seventeen years, in fact._ A loud sigh could be heard from the recording, followed by a story behind Shulk's decision to sacrifice himself.

 _Originally, I had infiltrated your nursery with the intent of murdering you. After all, Grima had raped me in order to bring you into existence, and I didn't want there to be a living reminder of what had happened to me. However, when I saw you for the first time, suffering from Ether Deficiency because the Homs half of your body couldn't provide enough Ether for you to live on and the human half providing nothing at all... I couldn't bring myself to do it. You wouldn't know, but when I was really young, I suffered from Ether Deficiency on a constant basis myself. I know what it's like to be weak, cold, and suffering all the time. I wanted to do something to help you._ Another heavy sigh. _Even though you had been brought about by less than ideal circumstances, I still fell in love with you immediately. Besides, if you died, I would have been put to death anyway for providing Grima with a faulty heir if you had died on your own, or for murdering the prince, had I done you in myself. By giving you my Monado, I'm making sure that one of us lives on to continue fighting for a better future._

By this time, tears were involuntarily starting to fall from Mark's eyes. He now realized that he had pegged his father all wrong this entire time. Nothing had changed about Shulk in the short time between now and Mark's birth – Shulk's heart was still as big as it always had been... No, it was even bigger than that. Future Shulk had voluntarily made the ultimate sacrifice out of love so that Mark could live as a healthy young man.

 _So please, Mark..._ The projection continued. _Keep fighting. Don't give up. You have the power of the Monado to protect you. By the time this message is finished, the shackles I placed on the Monado to make it appear to be a replica if examined by Grima should be gone. I didn't want her using you as a tool to control the Monado's immense powers. Now that you're an adult, you should have the full power of the Monado to command. If you're still fighting against Grima, use the Monado's power to free yourself. If you're not, then use this power to continue performing just deeds. I know you will use this power for good._

Future Shulk then closed his eyes. It was slightly hard to see, but his body looked like it was starting to break down right in view of the camera. _I love you, Mark. I'm sorry that I couldn't raise you myself. Stay strong, and may my Monado continue to serve you well. Goodbye, my son... And as the love of my life told me right before he died in my arms, may we meet again in a better life..._ The figure then started breaking down in front of the recording even faster until he became pure Ether and was absorbed into the Monado. The message then faded out a second later now that it was finished.

Mark sat there for a moment in shock at the message he had just heard, trying to process it in his brain. “Dad...” He whispered, still involuntarily crying. “You... you didn't hate me...” Finally, he started bawling as he buried his face into the ground and his sobbing crescendoed. “You loved me! You always loved me! You didn't change at all! I'm a fucking idiot!” Mark slammed his hand onto the ground beside him as he wallowed in his misery. “You gave your life for me, and I repaid you by handing you over to Grima again in a new timeline!” However, the sobbing stopped a moment later as he looked up at the sword sitting on the ground before him once again.

“This Monado...” Mark whispered as he grabbed the blade and held it in his hands once more. “It's actually the real thing... And Dad had weakened it so I couldn't be used as a future-seeing tool by Grima... Another act of Dad's love for me...” He then closed his eyes. “...Lucina also has a future incarnation of her father's sword. She calls it the Parallel Falchion. As such, it's only fitting that I should call my own sword the Parallel Monado to match.”

Mark stood up. “My mind has been made up. I will use the Parallel Monado to fight against Grima and save my dad from being enslaved by the Fell Dragon... Even if it costs me my own life...” Mark sighed before continuing his monologue. “Heh... How ironic. You sacrificed your life for me and now it's my turn to sacrifice my life for you...” He was well aware that if he freed Shulk from Grima, he would never be born, and it would result in him disappearing, much like how Robin's daughter had when her mother was killed before she was born. Mark then closed his eyes and held the blade up near his face. “Parallel Monado... You should now have the power to allow me to see the future, shouldn't you? Show me a future where my dad and his friends can live happy and free from Grima's tyranny!”

As if responding to Mark's plea, the Parallel Monado's symbol changed to a **望** to represent the future it was trying to give its wielder. He opened his eyes a minute later, the right of which was now glowing blue, such like how Shulk's eyes would glow when exposed to his own visions prior to being cursed by Grima. And then, he smiled. He finally had the power to foresee the future, and he would use this power to rescue his dad from the clutches of the evil dragon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 6148 words. So there you have it: Daraen was actually a Male Shulk!Morgan the whole time. That should shed a little light on what's been going on here. Notes:
> 
> 1\. Let's talk half bloods for a minute here. Seeing as obviously no such character exists in Xenoblade due to the fact that everybody on Bionis has Ether-rich blood, I had to make quite a few headcanons here for Mark. Pretty much everything I said about Mark's problems being a half breed is headcanon. Also I explain later how Grima managed to birth a half Homs child despite the fact that Reflet is 100% human, so stay tuned for that.
> 
> Oh yeah, and ~~Daraen~~ Mark and Corrin's child? Quarter Homs. Also Shulk's grandkid. How will that play out? Stay tuned for that too, even though it won't be in this story.  
>  2\. I'm aware of what it means for Mark to be a Monado wielder. I'll address that by the end of the story, don't worry.  
> 3\. The Voniluk/Klaire thing is also in a to-be-written part. Yeah, spoilers, they die. ~~Even though that's mentioned in the drabble collection too.~~ Nobody ever figures out who the real culprit of that murder is either until now.  
>  4\. The hologram thing is just to be cool. ~~Also an excuse to have exposition so that Mark has a change of heart.~~  
>  5\. Mark switches from 'Father' to 'Dad' partway through the chapter to represent him forgiving (Future and Present) Shulk.  
> 6\. The kanji at the end of the story when Mark activates his Monado, 望, means "wish" or "desire" on its own, but it's also the second kanji in both 希 **望** (hope) and 絶 **望** (despair), representing that it could go either way.  
>  7\. The one glowing eye thing is another half blood headcanon (in a way), such that it's the eye rings that glow when visions are being given because it's one's own Ether reacting to the movement of Ether that the Monado sees. Seeing as Mark only has enough Ether to manifest a ring in one eye because of his half breed nature, it results in only one eye glowing.


	4. The Plan Commences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to launch the plan to save Shulk from Grima and Daraen. However, it soon becomes clear that Robin's the only one capable of doing this, but he's still got opposition from Daraen... or does he?

“What do you mean, I can't come?!” Kamui's voice could be heard from a mile away due to how he was yelling in irritation. “This is my battle too! You saw what that jerk did to me! I want to give him a piece of my mind!”

“For the last time, it'll be too dangerous for you to join the assault.” It was Samus who responded to him. “Not only will you not be able to hold your breath long enough in very little atmosphere, but your wings won't work for the same reason. You would have to join somebody in their ship and all you would really be doing is watching the rest of us fight to try breaking down that barrier.”

“What about after the barrier goes down?” The Hoshidan prince replied. “I'll be able to join the assault on foot, right?”

“No guarantees there will even be an on-foot assault as it is.” The bounty huntress replied. “It'll be safer for all of us if we stick to our ships, after all. Zombies don't exactly fare well against a ton of steel ramming into them.” Kamui's ears folded down as he realized that he wasn't going to be able to talk Samus into this. Defeated, he groaned and started walking away. Corrin quickly came over to try cheering him up.

“They'll probably drag Daraen back here alongside Shulk.” She stated. “He has a lot of explaining to do, after all. You'll be able to say your piece to him then.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right...” Kamui grunted in defeat. “I just really wish there was some way I could help rather than just cheering from the sidelines, though.” Corrin took her male counterpart's hands into her own and smiled.

“Sometimes it's for the good of everybody that you sit on the sidelines, though.” She chuckled, although her voice betrayed a bit of sadness. “I know you would like to help, but from what Samus has been saying, you would really only get in the way. I mean, I love Daraen, and I want to help too, but I just can't see myself going like this...” Subconsciously a hand went to the princess' stomach. Kamui wasn't one of the people who was in the know about her pregnancy, so he thought nothing of the gesture.

At that moment, the sound of jets could be heard flying around overhead. Several seconds later, Obsidian Face flew into view and did a few fancy flight maneuvers in the air before swooping down and gently stopping about a hundred feet away from the other Smashers who were gathered. It wasn't long later when the Mechon's hatched opened up and the white haired tactician jumped out from the driver's seat, standing firm with his back facing the machine. He had an air of confidence now that was renewed with the prospect of saving the man he loved.

“Is this everybody who's going?” Robin looked around and counted off heads. There were really only a few Smashers who had the capacity to help out with this space endeavor, but thankfully, all of them were here: Samus, Captain Falcon, Kirby, Meta Knight, and the Star Fox pilots (Olimar would have joined as well were it not for the Dolphin lacking weaponry). Robin couldn't help but wince slightly at the small number of companions he had going into this, but considering the circumstances, this was as good as it was going to get.

“Do you have the coordinates for where we're going?” Samus asked, walking over to where Robin was standing and looking down at him. “You've been put in charge of this, so I would hope you know what you're doing.” Robin chuckled awkwardly.

“I may be a tactician, but I can't say I have any experience with space fighting...” He rubbed the back of his head as a result of that awkward moment, but quickly recovered. “However, it can't be too much different than leading an army of infantry and cavalry. I'm sure I'll pick it up in time.” Just then, he tapped the frame of his goggles and a little box lit up on the interior of the glass that was visible even to an outside view such as Samus'. His eyes briefly scanned the box before it disappeared just as quickly as it showed up, but it was enough for that tactician confidence to come back in spades. “But to answer your original question, I just checked my database to verify that Obbie did manage to get the coordinates for where we're going. I'm completely certain that this is where we're headed.” Gods, when he spoke like that, it made him sound like the robot he always insisted he wasn't.

“Guess that means we should head to our ships and prepare for launch then.” Fox chimed in before he started walking away with Falco beside him. The others started dispersing with that order as well, and Samus relaxed slightly, a hand going to her hip as she said one last piece before heading off.

“All right then,” She said. “You're the tactician. We'll follow your lead once we're all airborne.” And with that, the huntress began walking away. Now that nobody was staring at him anymore, Robin took a moment to sigh and break his facade as he stared over his shoulder at his machine hovering behind him.

“...Gods, am I really fit to do this?” He muttered. “I have no experience in space – Ylisse is nowhere near technologically advanced enough to even consider space travel.” A metal hand clenched into a fist. “Still... I have no choice but to try... For Shulk's sake.” Robin's drone wings unfolded, and he lifted off the ground to get back into the cockpit of his machine. He was going to have to watch the others lift off and then take the lead once they were all in space.

\---

After everybody got into space, Robin opened up comms between all the different ships that he was supposed to be leading. “Does everybody read me?” He asked, listening for everybody to get back to him. The only one unable to give any kind of verbal feedback was Kirby due to his Warp Star not having a speaker system. At the same time, he had been given an earpiece so he could listen in on the conversation. As such, the pink star warrior gave physical confirmation instead by waving his arm enthusiastically. There was one more question that came to mind as Robin looked back at all the ships behind him and the backdrop of stars beyond. The vastness of space was almost completely devoid of color besides the stars twinkling off in the distance, and Obsidian Face was a deep purple, almost black shade. “You guys don't have any problems seeing my Mechon, do you? It's a really dark color after all.”

“It's got red lights fluctuating all over it.” Samus reminded him. “That and your thrusters are white hot. Don't worry about not being seen.” Robin would have facepalmed if it weren't for the fact that he was strapped into his Mechon's control system right now. He had honestly forgotten about the blood lights and the thrusters, but now that Samus brought them up, it felt like he had asked a stupid question.

“Can we just get going already?” Falco huffed impatiently. “How long are we just gonna hover in place for? Everybody's here and accounted for, so let's hit the road.” Robin exhaled deeply upon hearing that, filling the comms system with static. Before anybody could complain about the noise, however, he started barking out his first order as space captain.

“Everybody follow me!” He shouted, pointing Obsidian Face's wind turbine arm forward as if he was gesturing off into the distance. A second later, his thrusters kicked up a notch in power and he started zooming along at top speed. The others were quick to go after him, seeing as he was both the leader and the one with the coordinates. Due to how quickly the machines flew, they were all in the Astral Plane within a couple minutes.

Once there, it became clear that there were a large number of Deeprealms, each with its own little sphere that the realm existed inside of. None of these screamed 'malevolent prison', however, but Robin's coordinates didn't pinpoint the exact location. It was now a matter of combing the realms over until somebody spotted a realm that was radiating an evil purple and red aura. These were the instructions given as the group split off. Kirby, seeing as he was unable to talk back to the others, decided to stick close to the Halberd so that he didn't wander around forever even after somebody found their target.

Several minutes later, a voice crackled over the communication line. “I think I found it!” Fox reported to the rest. “I'll start trying to chip away at it with my lasers while the rest of you make over to my coordinates. I'll send out a beacon.” Robin's heart flipped a bit when he heard the news, and he wanted to get over there as fast as possible.

“Obbie, do you have confirmation of a beacon on your radar?” He asked, waiting for a response from the machine's control system.
    
    
    “Scanning... Beacon located. Would you like to activate autopilot to bring us to the location of the beacon?”

“Yes, please do.” The tactician started mentally preparing himself for whatever he might find beyond the barrier that his sweetheart was being held behind, but he knew that this team would be able to get Shulk back no matter what.

It wasn't long later before Obsidian Face was now floating in front of a purple and red sphere. The dark aura coming off it was so strong that it illuminated a considerable area around the barrier with those same eerie colors. Fox's Arwing was already blasting away at the sphere, but the lasers seemed to dissipate immediately upon impacting the barrier. Other ships quickly arrived on scene as well and starting firing off attacks, all of which were having no effect at all. Even Kirby started slamming his Warp Star against the barrier, but kept bouncing off of it like it was made out of rubber.

“Hold your fire!” Robin suddenly ordered after spending a few more seconds examining just what kind of effect the attacks were having on the barrier. “We're making no progress like this. Projectiles just dissipate on impact and physical attacks just bounce off.”

“Then what do you propose we do?” Samus asked, sounding a little suspicious. “It's not like saying 'open sesame' will make the barrier let us through.”

“Try focusing fire on the same spot.” Robin suggested. “With enough stress in a focused location, the barrier might weaken and maybe break. I'll chip in too.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Fox responded. “Who wants to pick a spot?” The response to this question was Falco firing off his Arwing's bullets at a spot right in front of him. The others quickly joined in, and Robin even used all three of his Mechon's main attacks at once. They focused down the spot for a couple minutes, and then Kirby attempted to smack into the barrier right outside the area where the others had been firing, seeing as he didn't want to get zapped by everybody's attacks by going straight for the center, but even still he bounced off harmlessly. The firing stopped a second later when Robin saw this and ordered a ceasefire. The barrier didn't look like it had taken any damage at all.

“Gods damn it all!” Robin shouted in frustration. He decided to smack the barrier with Obsidian Face's wind turbine, expecting it to bounce off like Kirby's warp star did as he unleashed his frustration. However, to the surprise of everybody, the turbine swiped right through into the magical energy. In fact, Robin had put so much force behind his frustration attack that he ended up tumbling head over tail right through the barrier.

“Robin!” Samus cried out, worried about him as she saw him disappear. “Robin, are you okay?!” His shouting from the unexpected tumble was cut off in the middle of transmission, and suddenly static came through instead. “...Robin?! Damn! We've lost him!” Yet again, the others tried to push through like Robin had done so by accident, but it soon became clear that he was the only one who had been allowed to do so.

Now it was a matter of waiting to see if he could return from the other side of the barrier.

\---

“...Samus? Fox? Anybody?! Please, respond to me!” Robin shouted into the intercom system, with the hopes that somebody would answer his plea and the sinking feeling that he was now truly alone would fade. However, there was absolutely no response, prompting Robin to then address his Mechon's control system. “...Obbie, do we even have contact with the others right now?”
    
    
    “Negative, Master. All communications channels became jammed after we passed through the barrier.”

“...Gods...” The tactician had a tone of dread now present in his voice. This was supposed to be a collective assault, but Robin had now been separated from the rest of the team. He bashed Obsidian Face's wind turbine arm against the barrier, but it just bounced off like all of the attacks from the other Smashers had from the other side of the red and purple shroud. This barrier was a one way gate for him and him only.
    
    
    “Master, my sensors detect Ether behind us. There is a 95% chance that if we follow that signature, we will locate the Heir to the Monado.”

As much as Robin hadn't wanted to launch the assault against Grima's stronghold all by himself, the current predicament made it so that he had no choice. He was going to have to pursue that Ether signature all alone and face whatever baddies Grima had set up along the route with only Obsidian Face by his side. Therefore, Robin switched the Mechon's control scheme to automatic and let Obbie fly into the ominous looking maze below them in order to track the Ether signature.

It was several minutes later when Obbie stopped flying and started hovering in place. The Mechon's mechanical voice echoed immediately afterward to inform its master as to what caused it to stop.
    
    
    “Error: Ether signature lost. Cannot track signature anymore.”

“What do you mean, you lost the Ether signature?!” Robin did a double take at the news. “I mean, you can't expect me to believe that Shulk just completely vanished without a trace!”
    
    
    “I have recorded the signature's last known location. I shall upload the information into your data bank so that you may pursue the signature on foot if you desire, Master.”

Robin had to wonder why Obsidian Face was insisting that he go on foot, and so he voiced his concerns. “Wait, on foot? Why can't you fly me further into this labyrinth yourself, Obbie?”
    
    
    “After the Ether signature vanished, a large mass of dark magic was detected. It is imperative that you fulfill your mission, Master. Therefore, I shall hold off the dark magic coming in our direction.”

Now that Obbie had brought it up, Robin did sense an overwhelming amount of magic seeping into the labyrinth now. Knowing Grima, she had probably summoned an army of Risen to try and incapacitate the new presence in her maze as well as masked Shulk's Ether signature in order to throw Robin off. Unbeknownst to the Fell Dragon, however, Obsidian Face was quite functional as a self reliant war machine. It could hold off hordes of undead creatures for a very long time even without its master at the helm.

“...Got it.” Robin admitted that the Mechon was correct. He couldn't afford to get sidetracked by Risen and risk losing the Ether signature completely. As such, he allowed Obbie to upload the last known coordinates of the signature into his mind before he unlatched himself from the Mechon's control system and opened up the cockpit. Upon doing so, he gasped at the sight of what seemed like hundreds of glowing purple eyes staring up at him. A second after Robin gawked at the sight below him, spells, arrows, and a slew of throwing weapons started getting launched at him. The tactician instinctively raised his arms to shield his vulnerable face, and everything bounced off his metal arms as a result.

The onslaught of attacks made it impossible for Robin to perform any action besides guarding, and so Obbie acted instead. The Mechon roared to life and slowly rotated its flamethrower arm forward. After a loud hiss, fire streamed forth from the machine, incinerating the swathes of Risen trying to attack Robin. An unholy sounding scream filled the air as burning flesh of the undead added an eerie glow to the maze. Robin had fallen backward into his seat once more when Obbie had reared forward in its attack to protect its master, and now he needed a moment to regain his bearings before standing up again.

“Thank you, Obbie.” The cyborg mage smiled as he looked in the direction he knew the Mechon's face was despite that part hiding behind the open cockpit bay. “I'll find that signature and get Shulk now. You just keep the Risen from getting past to attack me.”
    
    
    “Affirmative. Make haste, but remain safe, Master.”

Robin's drone wings shot open and he jumped out of the cockpit, zooming into the maze a second later. The signature's coordinates were vividly imprinted into his mind thanks to Obbie, and it was now just a matter of maneuvering through the maze to find where that signature had come from and whether the owner of said signature was still capable of being rescued.

\---

Mark's right eye was glowing blue, as if azure flames were leaping from the corners of his iris. A confident smile highlighted his face. He had foreseen Robin's approach and was very pleased to see that the tactician and his Mechon had managed to evade capture. It was just a matter of time before Robin made his way here. The White Mage even had an idea as to how he was going to ensure his escape from the cell he was currently sitting within.

As anticipated, Robin swooped in not too long later, pausing before the dark vines that covered the area before him. The low hum of the drone jets was the cue that Mark was waiting for before acting.

“R-Robin...? Is that you?”

The voice made Robin's heart skip a beat. He gasped loudly before responding aloud. “SHULK!” He shouted. “It was you! That Ether signature was yours! Hang on, I'll get you out of there as soon as I can!”

In actuality, the voice was not Shulk's, but rather Mark giving his best impersonation of the Heir to the Monado's voice. Seeing as he had impersonated Shulk before when he had murdered Voniluk, this was a pretty easy feat for the White Mage. His Bionite accent was spot on, and the impression of his father's voice was close enough that it fooled a desperate Robin.

Several seconds later, Robin had pulled a Valflame tome out of his robe and set fire to the magical vines. They shrieked and squealed upon being lit ablaze, eventually burning away to reveal the interior of the cell. The soft glow of the Monado waited within, giving Robin hope that he had finally reunited with the man he loved before he had been corrupted by the Fell Dragon.

That hope was dashed a moment later as Mark stepped out of the shadow of his cell, Monado swinging to his side he sauntered forth to look up at his savior. “Thank you so much for helping to set me free, Robin~” Mark teased, using the same Shulk impersonation that he had used a moment prior. It elicited a betrayed gasp and subsequent growl from the airborne cyborg.

“...Daraen...” Robin felt his metal hands curl into fists. “So this was another trap all along... You had both Obbie and I completely fooled, using an Ether signature into making us both think Shulk had been imprisoned here. I should have guessed that this was too easy of a rescue.” Mark laughed for a second before responding.

“What if I told you that you weren't being fooled? At least, not in the way you're thinking.” He retorted. “That Ether signature that drew you here is authentic.” Robin pointed the corner of the Valflame tome he still had in hand at the White Mage before shouting at him.

“So you did have him in there with you!” He barked. “Where is he now?!” Mark quickly shot back with his own angry response.

“Idiot!” He hissed. “That's not what I meant at all! The Ether signature you followed wasn't Shulk's!”

“Then who in Naga's name could it possibly belong to?!” Robin's voice escalated further. It was at this moment that Mark swung the bright red blade at his side forward so that the other tactician could see the cool blue **望** symbol on the center plate as he spoke.

“It belongs to me!” Robin took this in the opposite manner than Mark was hoping, as was evident by his eyes blinking to a red hue and his anger reaching a fever pitch.

“...You killed him, didn't you?!” He howled. “You killed Shulk and stole the Monado for yourself! That explains the disappearance of the Ether signature too! I'll destroy you for what you've done, traitorous bastard!” Without listening for any response by Mark, Robin's hand began swirling with magic and he fired off a Valflame into the cell. The White Mage's right eye glowed fiercely as the center of his sword turned yellow and flipped open. With a swing of the blade, a barrier of yellow hexagons formed around Mark and the flames of Robin's spell exploded harmlessly around him. Once the fire died down, Robin eyes constricted in shock as he saw that Mark was completely untouched by his spell and the Monado Shield barrier still dully glowed around him.

“W-what?” He stuttered. “H-how? How can you... use the Monado?” Robin knew full well what happened to people who tried to use the Monado when they didn't have the power to do so. He had very nearly died as a result of using the Sword of the Bionis, and here Daraen was, swinging the Monado around without a care in the world. He could use Monado Arts and everything!

“Oh, suddenly you care about me wielding your precious seer's sword!” Mark barked back. “I thought you just wanted me dead! Make up your damn mind!” Just then, the Parallel Monado's glow changed color to green. “Now get down here and fight me fairly!” After that, Mark fired off a Monado Purge at Robin, causing him to shout in pain as the Ether pummeled his Mechon body. However, instead of tearing him asunder, the only effect the Monado Purge had had was to shut down Robin's drones. The wings flipped back down into their compact mode and he fell out of the sky. Thankfully, his metal body cushioned the fall, but Robin found himself unable to reactivate the drones.

“What the hell did you do to me?!” The white haired cyborg shouted. “Undo your spell immediately!” Mark sauntered forward so that he was several paces away from Robin, brandishing the Parallel Monado toward Robin once he had finished walking.

“Fight me in a fair sword duel!” Mark ordered. “If you win, you may take my life. But if I win, I want you to shut up and listen to my story!” Robin did find it weird that Mark didn't seem too interested in killing him, if the wager was anything to go by. However, Robin's battle schema was still active, and so more than anything, he wanted the black haired tactician's blood to be spilled right now. Robin dug into his robes and pulled out his Levin Sword, pointing it back at Mark.

“You're on!” He growled. “I'll take you down!” And so, Robin made the first move, rushing forward to attack with his sword. Mark quickly parried the blow using the outer metal frame of his Monado, then pushed back so that he put some distance between the two of them again.

“Just so we're clear, this means neither of us can use our swords' special abilities.” Mark clarified, keeping to the defense still. “You can't use your Levin Sword's lightning, and I won't use Monado Arts or rely on visions.”

“I don't need my Levin Sword's lightning to defeat you!” Robin barked in response, ignoring Mark's mention of being able to have visions. He thrusted the lightning shaped blade toward Mark's abdomen. In response, Mark countered with a downward swing, slamming his heavy red blade into the side of the Levin Sword. Now if Robin still possessed his human body, that force might have been enough to disarm him. However, his metal hands held fast, and he was able to continue fighting.

The two tacticians exchanged blows for several minutes. Mark stayed mostly on the defense, as his intention wasn't to kill his opponent. Robin was fully intending to behead the White Mage, however, and so his attacks were relentless. However, Robin's tactical prowess was compromised a bit with his battle schema active. The cyborg mage was fighting recklessly, and Mark was just waiting for an opening to exploit.

Finally, that moment came. Robin jumped into the air to try attacking from above. Mark was still in prime condition, however, and so he managed to block the overhead attack and pushed back with his own sword. The white haired tactician was thrown off balance as he fell onto his back, and Mark hurried forward to poke the tip of his blade under Robin's neck before he could get up again. The bright red blade guard was pushed up under the cyborg mage's head, but the beam was not active.

“Should I decide to activate my Monado like this, you'll die.” Mark stated with a dark tone to his voice. “If I were you, I'd stop struggling to get up. You've lost the duel.”

“...Kill me.” Robin spat. At this point, his eyes had returned to their natural brown hue, and he looked like he was about to cry. “You've already got me where you want me to be, Daraen. All I wanted was to save the man I loved... A man you stole away from me. You took everything from me... I have nothing to live for anymore...” Mark shook his head briskly.

“I told you that if you lost, you'd shut up and listen to me!” He yelled, still keeping his defeated opponent at swordpoint. “I don't want to kill you! I want you to listen to my story!” After seeing Robin's expression become calmer, Mark sighed and relaxed, even though he still didn't trust Robin enough yet to free him at this time.

“...Go ahead, Daraen.” Robin stated in a low voice. “I'm listening.” Mark took a deep breath and began his story.

“...First of all, I don't want you calling me Daraen anymore.” He stated. “My real name is Mark. After I tell you my story, I hope you'll work with me without question.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4625 words. Whoops, this took a bit longer than I intended for it to do so. I blame my final project, followed by the Voting Gauntlet on Fire Emblem Heroes, and then Fire Emblem Echoes for taking all my time up until now. But now the entire story is finished and it's now a matter of posting it here~ Anyway, notes:
> 
> 1\. This is the only time Samus, Fox, Falco, and Kirby play any real role in this story, so I'm not tagging them as main characters for the story.  
> 2\. Why was Kirby not given a mic? He wouldn't have anything of value to say anyway, that's why.


	5. The Tale of the White Mage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark tells his story to Robin in hopes that he'll be more receptive to working with him. Does it work, though?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, this is a first person POV chapter (with the exception of the very ending, which goes back to third person omniscient). Also part of this is a recap of Chapter 3. Keep that in mind.

It all started last month... At least, it should have. Reflet's pregnancy with Lucina was abnormal, as we both know. Thing is... She was supposed to have died in childbirth. (“What?!” Robin exclaimed. “How in Naga's name can you make a claim like that?!”) Let me continue! It'll all be explained shortly! Anyway, after Reflet's death, the Fourth Super Smash Brothers Tournament was put on hold for a while, much like it had when you had died. During this time, Chrom wanted to bring his deceased wife back to Iris so she her loss could be mourned.

Unfortunately, Grimleal intercepted the portal back to Iris, and Chrom found himself in Plegia instead. He was attacked and killed, and Reflet's body was taken by the Grimleal to use for the revival of Grima. Seeing as Reflet was already dead, the Ascension ritual was very quick, and Grima now had Reflet's body for his vessel. Pretending that he was Reflet, Grima returned to the Super Smash Brothers Mansion. Everybody was confused as to how Reflet had managed to come back alive and wondered where Chrom had disappeared to, but they accepted Grima into their ranks all the same.

Things pretended to be normal again for several months, even though everybody was concerned about the fact that Chrom had never returned. Grima played dumb, acting as if Reflet had lost all memories of Chrom and didn't even know who he was. Grima had even participated in the Super Smash Brothers tournament and fought as Reflet during the months leading up to his assault.

During those months spent in relative peace, Grima was actually amassing an extraordinarily huge army of Risen. When this army had finally reached a number that he deemed fitting, he took a Smash Ball and used its immense power to tear open a portal from Plegia to the Super Smash Brothers realm, large enough to fit his dragon form through, rather similarly to how he had used the Smash Ball to fit his claw in and grab Shulk earlier. Thousands died during the initial assault on the realm, including many Smashers.

Those who survived the initial attack became the resistance that would fight to free the Smash realm from Grima and his undead army. The Smashers and other civilians who he had killed were all revived as Risen, making the invasion even stronger than before. Still, hope existed that the survivors could defeat Grima and send him back to the realm from which he came.

You and Shulk were among the survivors of the first attack, Robin. You didn't have your Mechon body in this timeline, though. As a skilled tactician, you had become the de facto leader of the resistance. Shulk, with his foresight, was your second in command, using his powers to help you with your strategies and avoid casualties. The resistance had very few members, after all, as nobody would dare come in from the outlying realms to help after hearing about the genocide. For the longest time, the resistance had win upon win against the Risen invaders thanks to you and Shulk. Grima had become immensely frustrated by how effectively the resistance had been pushing him back, and he ordered for you two to be captured alive and brought to him.

In early August, Grima's forces had finally learned about the resistance hideout. Grima sent out forces to draw the resistance away from their base, but then sent a second battalion into the resistance base to capture the leaders. What remained of the resistance at the base was easily overpowered, and not even your prowess for strategy nor Shulk's foresight was enough to push them back. You and Shulk were cornered very quickly. Realizing Shulk's foresight was more important to the resistance, you concocted a plan to become a distraction and allow him to get away. It had almost worked, but an attack that was supposed to incapacitate you instead ended up mortally wounding you. Shulk gave up the easy passage to freedom in order to try saving your life. You insisted that he leave you there to die and get out while he still could. However, you had underestimated how much Shulk really loved you, and he stayed by your side until you died, even knowing that he was to be surrounded and would be surely be captured. As expected, once you died, Shulk was taken into custody and brought back to Grima as a prisoner.

Grima had been initially upset that you had been killed, but he was still delighted that the backbone of the resistance had been shattered and that he had captured the resistance's second in command with psychic powers. He had learned about the powers of the Monado, and wished to acquire these powers himself.

However... Grima was not able to control the Monado in his current state. It rejected him and very nearly destroyed Reflet's body, trying to purge him with an excessive amount of Ether. After this failure, that's when he decided he needed a vessel that could control the Monado. A child with the Heart of Grima that was also the Heir to the Monado...

Shulk was forced into having sex with Reflet's body, eventually getting her pregnant. Grima had restored Reflet's body when he had taken it as his vessel, and so she was capable of bearing another child. Because of the excess Ether the Monado had tried purging Grima with, Reflet's body had enough Ether to provide to a developing child for the nine months of pregnancy even though she otherwise had the body of a human and shouldn't have been able to carry a half Homs child.

That half Homs, half human child with the Heart of Grima and the power to use the Monado... is me. My true name is Mark Lowell-Soss. I was born on May 5th of next year, with the intent that Grima would eventually claim my body as his vessel and use me to harness the powers of the Monado for himself. I was to be raised like a lamb for the slaughter, nothing more.

However, half of my body didn't have the Ether producing ability that I needed to survive. The human half of my genetics was going to kill me, as I still need as much Ether as any other Homs to survive despite not being entirely a Homs myself. I was born weak and sickly, and it wouldn't be long before I died at this rate.

Shulk wanted to destroy me anyway at first. I was a reminder of the terrible things that had happened to him. He sneaked into my nursery to kill me, but instead found me shivering miserably in my crib. He knew that I was suffering from Ether Deficiency. Seeing as my death would probably result in his own death, as Grima would likely have given up trying to control the Monado after seeing what a failure I was, Shulk knew that his life would be over one way or another, and he wanted at least one of us to live. In the end, he chose me.

Shulk gave me his Monado, but with many of its powers sealed so that it could be passed off as a replica that didn't have all the functions of the true Monado. And then, he sacrificed himself and turned himself into Ether in order to make it appear like he had escaped with the true Monado in tow. Of course, Grima fell for it, wasting a lot of time and resources searching for a man who no longer existed. All that was really left of him was his illegitimate son with a red teardrop shaped earring. (It was at this moment that Mark moved the Monado from Robin's neck and placed the pommel next to his ear. A second later, the sword flashed brightly before disappearing, with Mark's signature earring dangling from its spot once more. Robin stared at the teardrop shaped accessory in awe – he couldn't believe that, for all this time, Mark's earring was a Monado!)

Heh, you haven't attacked me yet even when I withdrew my weapon. Guess you're really interested in my story, arentcha? (“I think I'm starting to understand you now.” Robin replied. “At the very least, you've convinced me that you're not really my enemy.”) That's good, because I'm really not. Shall I continue? (“Yes, go ahead.”)

Right, so for my entire life, I had been brought up on the lie that my Monado was a fake and my father had run away because he didn't love me. It wasn't actually all that long ago that I found out the truth, as he had recorded a message for me to play once I reached the adult Homs age of seventeen, and this message was just shown to me a little while ago.

(“Wait, just a little while ago?” Robin blinked once in confusion. “As in... you just turned seventeen? You told us that you were nineteen going on twenty – that yesterday was your twentieth birthday!”)

Yes, that's true. I did say that. There's more to my story though, so keep listening. The resistance had indeed fallen not long after your death and Shulk's capture. I grew up as one of very few living people, as many had been turned into Risen. And yet, I wanted to make friends with new people. Sometimes I managed to find somebody my own age who would talk to me, but within a week, they would disappear or be turned into a Risen. I realize now that Mo... Grima wanted me to be alone... to have nobody I would feel my life wasn't worth giving to, so that he could easily convince me to become his vessel.

Everything changed, however. Lucina grew up in Iris during all of this, and she went back to the past in order to stop the destruction from occurring – to prevent her mother's death and the conquering of the Smash realm. Grima needed to pursue her in order to stop her, and so I was sent in his stead. Master Hand is extremely intelligent. He won't fall for the same trick twice. Grima wouldn't be able to masquerade as Reflet again to stop Lucina, but I hadn't been used as a proxy before.

We found out about an Avatar of Grima in another timeline whose name was Daraen, and so I took that name for my disguise. I couldn't take off my Monado earring because it was keeping me healthy, so Grima instead gave me an outfit that looked better with my teardrop earring than yours does, hid my ringed eye with magic, changed my hair color from Shulk's flaxen blond to a deep black, and placed a cursed tattoo on my back. I really did look like the Avatar of Grima after he was done. I had become Daraen, the White Mage of Iris, all to infiltrate the Super Smash Brothers realm for my mother and stop Lucina from changing the future.

I did everything to stop my sister, following the orders that Grima sent me through the cursed tattoo on my back. I was the one who tried to sabotage Lucina's birth as well as the one who killed Voniluk and tried to destroy Obsidian Face. All of these were on Grima's orders. The only one who knew about my tattoo was Kamui, and it was because of an accident. Even then, Grima sealed away the memory in his mind so that he wouldn't rat me out, in addition to cursing him for the purpose of using his dragon powers and his Omega Yato to open the hole to this realm.

What Grima wasn't expecting, however, was for me to forge friendships with my father and his group of friends. And to fall in love with a beautiful woman. Truthfully, I never actually wanted to go through with this plan to kidnap Shulk after that. It was only because of the cursed tattoo he placed on my back that I was forced to go through with it. He was controlling my body when I grabbed that Smash Ball and had Kamui rip a tear in the fabric of the realm.

(“Do you still have that cursed tattoo on your body?” Robin asked.) No, it's gone now. One of the first things I did when I realized I had Monado Arts at my disposal was to use Monado Purge and get rid of all of that dark magic. I don't want to be Grima's servant anymore. I want to save my father... I want to be with all my friends and the love of my life again... And I need your help to do it. Will you help me, Robin?

* * *

Robin finally stood up and offered a hand out to the black haired mage. Tears had started falling down Mark's face after he had stated his new goals. The White Mage really was passionate about fixing his mistakes, and Robin had a good feeling that Mark was trustworthy and everything he said was true. “I need your help too.” Robin answered with a smile. Mark gasped in response.

“You... really forgive me? That easily?” Mark had been expecting to have to beg a little more before getting to this point, so this was a surprise.

“If you really can help me save Shulk, you'll be completely forgiven.” Robin answered. “I know what it's like to have another control my body, and you can't be blamed for what you've done under another person's control.” He could recall at least two instances where somebody else had used his body to further their own goals, and that helplessness was the worst feeling in the world. Mark leaped forward and very nearly tackled Robin with a hug.

“Thank you!” He sounded legitimately grateful. “I promise I'll fight by your side until the very end! I even have an idea as to how we'll be able to fight Grima without him realizing that I have Monado powers now.”

“How do you expect to go about doing that?” Robin asked. Mark reached up and tapped Robin's goggles on the side of the glass.

“Don't you have a phone speaker in that frame of yours?” He said. “One that you can turn on when I call you up, I mean.” Mark then pulled his phone out of his robes and fiddled with it for a second before Robin's own phone began ringing. The white haired tactician responded by reaching up next to his ear and activated the headset built into his goggles' frame. “Yeah, just like that!” Robin smiled when realization finally hit him.

“I get it!” He said. “You can stay here out of Grima's detection while telling me about any visions you get through my headset!”

“That's exactly it!” Mark nodded excitedly. “He won't expect that I'm telling you the things I see through your headset. I'll be able to tell you what he's about to throw at you and he'll be none the wiser.”

“In that case, I should probably get going.” Robin unfurled his drone wings once more, as Mark's Monado Purge had worn off by this point. “Do you have any idea where Grima and Shulk might be?”

“Grima definitely knows you're here.” Mark nodded. “I would say to try following the darkness to its epicenter. That's really your best bet. Other than that, I really don't know.” With that, Robin took to the air and flew away. Just to make sure they still had connection as they put distance between them, Mark spoke again into his phone once Robin was out of sight. “Still read me?”

“Loud and clear.”

“Great. Now, good luck, and here's hoping this plan works.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2620 words. Kinda short, but finally the mages have made up and it's time to get to some actual rescuing. Notes:
> 
> 1\. For why Mark knows so much about the circumstances revolving around his birth, Grima bragged about much of it with him, seeing as she was so proud of what she had accomplished with him. Of course, the whole 'my dad died so I could live' part was something Mark learned on his own, allowing him to complete the story himself.


	6. Duel of the Dragons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Mark and Robin have made up, it's time for them to work together to fight to free Shulk. However, the battle is not as straightforward as they hoped it would be, with plenty of horrible surprises being thrown at them. Can Robin make it out of this battle with both himself and Shulk safe?

It had to be about five minutes of flying around aimlessly in the darkness later when the black haired tactician's voice could be heard again from the headset. “I'm sensing a large amount of dark energy in the area ahead of you.” Mark's voice crackled in Robin's ear. “That must be where Grima is keeping Shulk. Surely she wouldn't be keeping him somewhere unguarded, even if she's already brainwashed him.” Robin's eyes narrowed at those words. He figured that Grima would have resumed placing her curse on Shulk now that Robin wasn't around to interrupt, but it was still hard to hear.

A second later, Robin rounded a corner and was suddenly accosted with light. It was an unsettling purple color that illuminated this room, but it was more light than he was used to right now after crawling through the dark catacombs that made up this prison complex. After giving his eyes a moment to adjust, Robin took in his surroundings. It was a very large room that he had entered – probably about the size of a football field, if not bigger. The ceiling had a large line going down the center of it, effectively splitting the room in half with the line. Robin had entered at one side of the room whereas the only other occupant was sitting at the other end. Sure enough, it was none other than the vessel of the Fell Dragon herself, reclining on a throne made of dark magic.

“Welcome, Failed Vessel~” Grima's voice boomed throughout the room. “I'm impressed that you managed to get through the barrier and defeat all the Risen I sent to slow you down. Of course, seeing as it is my heart that pumps blood through your artificial body, perhaps it's not as surprising as I made it sound before.” Robin felt his metal hands curling into fists. How dare Grima take credit for any of his feats that had allowed him to get this far!

“Shut up!” He yelled so that the dragon's vessel could hear him from across the room. The acoustics of the large space picked up his voice and echoed it through the area. “You set up that barrier to act like that on purpose! I've seen more subtle traps set with netting and tripwire.” Grima laughed in response.

“What did you honestly expect coming into this domain?” She teased. “I set it up as a prison on purpose, and you came here knowing that full well. As soon as that machine of yours slipped through the barrier, you were caught. You're as much a prisoner as the precious seer that you're trying to save now.” The dragon vessel stood up from her throne. “Why don't you just end this game of cat and mouse now before you exhaust yourself? Genuflect before me, and I'll make things painless for you. Take to the collar and leash without complaint like the good little servant robot you are~” At this point, Robin knew that Grima was messing with him, but he exploded with anger anyway.

“I'm not a robot!” He barked. “I am human! And like hell will I surrender to you! I came here to rescue Shulk, and I'm not leaving without him!” Grima only smirked in response.

“Do you seriously think that you will actually leave here with your precious seer?” She chuckled. “You know that I cannot allow him to leave this place now that he's being held here.”

“She needs him so I can be born again in this timeline.” Mark's voice whispered into Robin's ear from the headpiece. Robin was a bit surprised to hear that Mark had actually heard everything, but that made things easier for keeping the lines of communication open between them. “She intends to keep him captive until nine months before I'm born at the very least. Of course, knowing Grima, she wouldn't let him leave even after that. She'll continue using the power of the Monado until I'm old enough to use it instead, and then, she would likely go as far as using both of us.” Robin silently noted what he was told, but didn't make any physical indication that he had, seeing as Mark was trying to keep quiet about how he was defying his mother and helping Robin. Instead, he took out his Levin Sword and brandished it about for a second before pointing it at the Fell Dragon.

“I'll save him.” He said with intense seriousness to his voice. “You don't deserve the power of the Monado!” At this point, Grima's taunting smile turned into a frown.

“...Fine.” She said. “If you want to fight for the freedom you think you still possess, I'll play your game. Let's make a wager, shall we?” That evil smile finally returned as she snapped her fingers and the large ceiling over their heads started groaning as it slid back slowly, revealing the open air above them. “Would you like to hear the rules of my game?”

“I don't need a vision to know that this sounds fishy as fuck...” Mark commented. Of course, he wasn't alone. Robin was also on edge after hearing that Grima wanted to make a wager with him and had opened up the ceiling as part of this.

“...Tell me the rules to this wager and I will decide whether to accept it or not.” Robin finally replied. “And what purpose did you open up the ceiling for?” Grima's evil smile grew even wider as she started giving information about the wager she was about to make.

“First things first, we need to decide on what we will be betting.” She began. “If you lose, Robin, you will submit yourself to me without any further struggle.” The metal digits on Robin's hands started curling tighter at what he was 'betting' in this game, but he decided to listen to the other end of the bargain before commenting, even though he had a feeling he knew what it was. “And if I lose, it's exactly what you expect – I give you back your sweet little seer, also without any further protest.” The stakes were very heavy, but the possibility of getting Shulk back with relative ease (at least, opposed to a full on battle to the death) was almost too good to pass up. He did need a bit more information about the roof, though.

“And the ceiling?” He asked. “Why did you pull it back just now?” Grima laughed again.

“Actually, it's for your advantage~” She taunted. “After all, the name of the game is for you to get a good, clean hit against me. Considering I can restrain you in one well timed magic blast while you're on foot, I figured that I might give you a fighting chance.” Her voice then became deathly serious. “Call your Face Unit. It's the only hope you possibly have for winning this game.” Grima had a point – Robin was many times stronger with Obsidian Face than he was on foot. He might as well take advantage of his Mechon to even the odds.

“Obsidian Face, come to me!” He cried out to the sky, his eyes switching color to gray as he activated his remote control mode. It was about a minute later when the dark purple dragon shaped robot swooped in out of the sky and started hovering behind its driver. The Mechon floated down so that the cockpit was level with the height at which Robin was floating, and then it opened up to permit Robin to finally resume control over his main body again and step inside.
    
    
    “Greetings, Master. Initiating manual control system.”

The system that controlled Obsidian Face politely greeted its driver as he sat down in the cockpit chair and allowed the system to attach the necessary wires to his body that let him command the machine on his own. A moment later, his voice echoed out of the system's exterior speakers.

“I'm ready to fight!” He announced, pointing Obsidian Face's flamethrower in Grima's direction. “One good hit is all it'll take to win? You're going to regret allowing me to use my Mechon!” Oddly enough, the dragon's vessel didn't even flinch.

“Let me explain what I have to do to win first.” She stated calmly. “I already stated that if you get a good, clean hit on me, you win. But if I'm able to render your machine unable to move, I'm the winner.” It was odd that Grima was asking Robin to just get one hit against her, whereas he needed to be completely defeated in order to lose. Was she just that confident in her battle skills that she thought that Robin couldn't even land a good hit against her? Or was she just trying to psyche him out?

“Don't worry, Robin.” Mark's phone was now transmitting his voice through Obsidian Face's interior speakers so that Grima still didn't know that he was helping. “We have the power of the Parallel Monado on our side. Just trust me and you'll win this wager easy peasy~” Robin nodded his head. How could they lose if they combined the powers of Obsidian Face and the Parallel Monado?

It soon became clear that Robin wasn't the only one with a trick up his sleeve, however. At that moment, a strange shadow bubbled up from the ground and a long black tendril climbed out of the abyss. After a second, the dark vein reached back down into the void under it for several seconds before showing itself again. What it brought up with it, however, made Robin's heart flip nervously.

“SHULK!” He screamed as he saw the man he loved get dragged up from the darkness, stark naked aside from a large bunch of black tendrils running up and down his body to provide some kind of decency, even if it wasn't much. The Monado wielder's irises were also glowing an evil red hue, and purple flames leaped from the corners of his eyes. He reached up to his right ear where, for some apparent reason, he had an earring much like Mark's hanging. Sure enough, as Shulk tugged on the earring, it turned into a Monado in his grasp, much like how Mark's Parallel Monado did. The ruby blade was pointed toward Obsidian Face, and it was impossible to discern any kind of emotion from Shulk's face as he looked up at the Face Mechon. Grima started laughing as she walked over behind Shulk and wrapped her arms around his torso, placing one on his left shoulder and the other a little too close to his crotch.

“I wish to see the Monado's ability to destroy Mechon with my own eyes~” She sighed, resting her head atop Shulk's right shoulder. “I figured this battle would be a wonderful way to see it. If the Monado really is as powerful as it's rumored to be, my dear little slave here will destroy Obsidian Face handily. If all the things I've heard about it are all talk and no action, then he'll lose for me and there's no point keeping a weak weapon and its equally weak wielder, and I won't feel bad handing him back over to you.” She then turned her head to make it look like she was whispering into Shulk's ear, even though she still used a voice that Robin could hear from all the way up where Obsidian Face was currently hovering. “Will you show me just how powerful your sword is, my precious slave?”

“Yes, Lady Grima...” Shulk replied in a monotone. Robin looked immensely distressed now that he realized what he was really battling against. He didn't want to fight Shulk, as he was afraid that he would end up killing him. Obsidian Face had originally been created to fight the Heir to the Monado, and even though the machine had been repurposed for good, that power to fight the Monado still existed within the Mechon's blueprints and had been built into the new version Robin was using.

“Oh, one more thing!” Grima let go of Shulk just then and took a step back. The black void that was still under their feet seeped up again, lifting Shulk into the sky while keeping the dragon's vessel standing firmly on the ground. The darkness then converged around him to create the form of a dragon created from the evil magic. The blue color of the Monado glowing from within the darkness illuminated the dragon's face and made it look like it had glowing blue eyes.

“Much better~” She laughed. “A much more befitting form for this fight, I think. Let's have a battle between dragons, shall we? Same rules apply as before – you win if you get a clean hit on me, but I win if my slave shoots your Mechon out of the sky and renders it unable to move.” She laughed for a moment before continuing. “Oh, and seeing as you agreed before by summoning your Face Unit, you can't back out now. If you do, it'll be the same as you losing the battle.”

“...It's all right.” Mark's voice came through Obsidian Face's interior speaker system to comfort a clearly rattled Robin not long later. “We can still do this. We still have the element of surprise on our side. I'll guide you with my visions and make sure we get past Shulk without hurting him to land the clean hit we need to defeat Grima at her game.” He sighed into his phone speaker, and it rang throughout the Mechon. “All you need to do is trust me, Robin...”

Obsidian Face hovered in place for a moment as Robin started coming up with a strategy that he would use to fight Grima. She was waiting for him to make the first move, standing beneath the black magic dragon that Shulk was being held within.

First things first, Robin needed to get Obsidian Face closer. Grima was out of range of most of his Mechon's attacks save for his electricity produced from the machine's long antennae. However, it took a while to charge up the electricity for this attack, and Obsidian Face needed to stay still to properly gather power. Grima would notice the electricity building and order Shulk to attack him before it was finished, more than likely.

Therefore, Robin's strategy was to use Obsidian Face's air speed to his advantage. The Mechon was built to be airborne all the time, and thus was designed for quick aerial fighting as a result. So, he finally made his first move, zipping away sideways from Grima and perpendicular to the giant dragon. She responded by raising her arm and pointing at the fast moving machine and ordering an attack.

“Fire at will!” She shouted. “Blow him out of the sky!” This was quickly responded to with purple beams being fired out from the dragon's mouth ahead of Obsidian Face as it predicted the machine's eventual location, with the intent of either cutting off the flight path or getting a clean shot on the Mechon and accomplishing the goal of shooting him out of the sky.

“Robin, change your flight path!” Mark's voice echoed through the speakers. “You're headed straight into the attack if you don't move!” To avoid having his voice heard by Grima as he acknowledged Mark's warning, he just nodded silently. Additionally, he decided against making a drastic change to his flight pattern to make it look like less of a dodge than it actually was supposed to be. Therefore, he angled Obsidian Face upward and allowed the beam to coast under the ventral side of the machine. However, he hadn't accounted for the Mechon's tail flopping about as he flew, and it ended up flipping downward right into the trajectory of the beam. The entire Mechon shook as a result of taking the hit to the tail, and Robin yelped in surprise for a moment before trying to figure out what had happened.

“Obbie, status report on that hit!” He yelled to the Mechon's control system. There was the sound of the machinery clicking away and running the diagnostics for a second before the mechanical voice finally responded.
    
    
    “Diagnostics complete. Site of damage has been completely blasted away. 10% of tail removed. Damage confirmed to be caused by concentrated Ether energy originating from the Monado.”

“...Fuck.” Robin mumbled under his breath. He hadn't forgotten that he was considered a failed Core Unit due to the fact that the human blood running through his veins lacked Ether and thus didn't repel the Monado. The legendary sword of the Bionis only failed to harm Bionis life, of which he was definitely not. That only meant that he would have to be careful about sustaining damage fighting Grima, as one false move could easily result in his entire machine being eviscerated by powerful Ether.

“Robin, you're not hurt, right?” Mark's voice rang through. “All that feedback I received after that hit made me think something catastrophic happened for a second.” The white haired tactician sighed before answering.

“Yeah, I'm fine.” He spoke quietly so that the exterior speaker microphone wouldn't pick up. “A little shaken up, but I've dealt with worse. Beam only clipped the tail. Let's get back into this.” As such, Obsidian Face roared to life once again as it continued sailing through the air. This time, the seemingly random flying pattern was a bit more pronounced and the dark purple Mechon seemed to bounce off invisible walls in midair as it swooped around erratically. It was almost impossible to track with the naked eye, and certainly fast enough to dodge several more Ether beams that were fired in its direction. Thankfully, none of them even managed to graze Obsidian Face this time. And finally, it was time to attack. The machine suddenly started rocketing toward Grima, flamethrower arm out and ready to fire at the evil dragon.

Just then, he was interrupted by a terrible sound permeating through the entire area. It was a bloodcurdling scream of agony, with the cry originating from somewhere behind him. The scream took Robin off guard so much that he just completely froze up in front of Grima right before he was about to hit her. Her eyes were glowing bright purple, and with a turn of the head, Robin noticed that the eyes of the dark dragon were shining with the same hue. His heart sank into his stomach as realization hit.

Grima had forcibly activated one of Shulk's visions. Seeing as Shulk didn't have the ability to foresee the future at will, Grima forcing him to do so must have had the resulting side effect of immense strain on his body. In short, she was torturing Shulk for his visions.

Robin was both terrified and infuriated by this reveal, and tears were involuntarily rolling down his cheeks. He was at a loss as to what to do, considering every time he tried attacking Grima, he would end up causing Shulk to get tortured to allow her to react accordingly. This time, however, she didn't even have to move because the horrible scream had caused Robin to stop.

“...Gods!” Mark hissed a second later through the phone, apparently having taken a moment to cringe himself before speaking again. “It hurt me physically to listen to that screaming – to hear not only my father, but a close friend of mine suffering so much... We have to stop Grima without allowing her to torture Shulk too much. I just don't know how much of his screaming I can take...” Before Robin could react one way or another, Grima started laughing boastfully.

“Did you enjoy that?” She taunted. “I know you're intelligent enough to know what that scream means, Failed Vessel. The more you fight against me and put me into perilous situations, the more I invoke your precious little seer's powers to dodge and counter attack. As powerful as he is, I'm sure there's only so much of that he can take before he'll die. At what cost do you wish to pursue victory? Will you sacrifice everything you came here for just for a single hit against me and earn your freedom back alone? Or do you want to spare both you and your sweet little seer suffering by surrendering? I'll make your punishment gentle if you hop out of that machine right now and bow before me~” Robin clenched his eyes shut and grit his teeth. On one hand, he wanted to prevent any further harm to Shulk. He had already suffered enough being here as a slave to begin with. On the other hand, he didn't want to surrender to Grima either. If he failed here, it wouldn't just be him losing his freedom, but Shulk and Mark would be trapped as well. The prison barrier was made of powerful magic, and it would hold the other Smashers back indefinitely, he was certain.

“...Keep fighting.” Mark answered at that moment. “We can win this together, I just know it. Grima still isn't aware of the fact that there's another Monado in play, and we have the advantage as long as she's not in the know. I want to save Shulk with as little torture done to him as possible. Let's show her the power of the Parallel Monado, shall we?” Robin nodded silently again. Mark was right – he still had a trick up his sleeve. All he had to do was continue the battle and listen to the advice coming in through his phone and eventually he would get that hit he needed to win.

Robin gave a deep sigh before opening his eyes once more. “I refuse to surrender!” He shouted, striking a pose with Obsidian Face after doing so. Grima's face instantly went from a smug smirk to an annoyed scowl as she realized that her tactic of trying to scare Robin into submission had failed.

“...Seriously? You're going to keep fighting?” She growled. “Fine. I'll just beat your stupid machine into the ground!” The dragon's vessel turned toward the dark dragon looming overhead. “Slave! Obliterate that machine once and for all this time!”

“Watch out!” Mark shouted. “There's a beam of Ether headed your way in a second! Move now!” Robin gasped and looked over at the darkness hovering over him and noticed that there was a gathering of light purple energy at the emanation's mouth that then started blasting his way. As per Mark's warning, however, Robin threw Obsidian Face's thrusters into high gear and zoomed out of the way of the incoming blast. “...It's going to change trajectory!” came a warning a second later. “Dive due left now!” Robin did as he was told, and the beam arced right past him as the dragon's head turned.

“Attack him again!” Grima ordered, holding out her arm toward Obsidian Face. “Keep blasting him until he's destroyed!” Therefore, the dragon inhaled once more before launching a beam at Robin yet again. With Mark's help, he avoided taking the hit a second time and now took this opportunity to fly around in search of an opening yet again. The pinballing had resumed, now for the sake of dodging Ether beams that fired off in his direction with the intent of destroying his machine.

“There's an opening!” Mark finally ordered after a while more of this game of cat and mouse. The dragon had just fired off a shot that pointed its head in the exact opposite direction of where Grima was standing, allowing Obsidian Face to shoot forward at mach speed in an attempt to hit her again. Robin didn't even need further prompting than the announcement that there was an opening before he launched himself clear across the battlefield with both his wind turbine and flamethrower arms up and ready to throw out an attack.

Just then, that horrifying scream rang across the arena yet again. Robin flinched visibly as he heard the shout of agony that came from Grima forcing Shulk to use his powers of foresight. However, unlike the first time, he was fully expecting this as he went to approach Grima. Therefore, as much as his heart was aching because of how much it hurt him to listen to the man he loved being tortured just a short distance away, he kept flying toward the dragon's vessel, knowing that he needed to get a hit against her so that the game would end and Shulk would finally be freed from the torture that Grima was putting him through in this battle.

However, he seemed to forget one thing: Grima's eyes were glowing the same color as the dark dragon's overhead. Somehow Grima had made it so that she was connected to Shulk and he was able to show her whatever he predicted. As such, she jumped out of the way of the turbine blast and stream of fire that were being thrown in her direction.

“Swoop away!” Mark screamed the second she bounced out of range of the attacks. “She's planning to throw a Thoron at close range to screw with Obsidian Face's electronic systems! If she hits, you're a sitting duck!” However, it was too late. The dark purple machine was continuing on its forward course, and thus Grima was directly above the Mechon's head. This was where she fired off a Thoron, sending the electricity through the metal frame below her. Obsidian Face spazzed in place as the energy ran through it, and a scream of agony from Robin followed soon after. After that attack, the Mechon collapsed to the ground and its glowing red eyes faded to black. As Mark had said, Obsidian Face was a sitting duck if it got hit by the Thoron. It took a second before it sank in for the dragon's vessel, but the fact that the dark purple machine had crashed into the ground and was no longer moving meant that she had won.

“Ahahahaha!” She laughed proudly as she stood atop the immobile Mechon. “You lose, Robin! I have defeated you and your pitiful machine! I will be coming in to take what rightfully belongs to me~” And with that, she started walking toward the cockpit to open it up and find what she assumed to be the poor white haired tactician that was half electrocuted to death and completely helpless.

Back in the “time out” cell, Mark had been on the receiving end of a large amount of static before the line had cut out entirely. It didn't take a genius to realize that Obsidian Face had shut down from too much electrical energy input, and that was what left Mark with an immense feeling of dread. “...No...” He gasped quietly as he stared at the face of his phone and the main menu glowing innocently at him. His left hand that had been holding onto said phone started shaking immensely as fear set in. “Oh gods no... Robin lost the battle...” Eyes then darted over to his right hand, which was holding onto the Parallel Monado. All at once, fear became anger as he tossed the sword halfway across the room, shouting in despair as he did so.

“Damn it all!” He screamed as tears slid down his face. “Even in its unshackled form, the Parallel Monado wasn't enough!” His voice then fell to a whisper as he continued a moment later. “...No, I wasn't enough. A sword is only as strong as its wielder, and I'm completely worthless...” Mark took one last look at his blade sitting across the room before closing his eyes, allowing one last set of tears to fall. “I won't let Grima abuse me the same way she tortured my father... So that means I'll just waste away here quickly without the Parallel Monado maintaining my health anymore. “I'm sorry I couldn't save you, Shulk... No... Dad...” Mark clutched his phone to his chest as he gave one more very quiet sentence.

“ _I loved you all along, Dad... I wish we could have been a true family... But it just wasn't meant to be...”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4685 words. Yikes. That hit rock bottom fast. ~~And on Chrom's birthday too.~~ Time for another cliffhanger! Notes:
> 
> 1\. Mark's input is apparently on speakerphone, but output is on internal microphone, I guess. That's how he can hear everything but Grima can't hear him. No, I don't know how that actually works.  
> 2\. Mark's not dead. _Yet._ But he has resigned himself to die by Ether Deficiency by throwing his Monado across the room. It's just a matter of time before his body that can't sustain its own Ether levels destroys itself. What a painful way to go.


	7. Darkness Devours All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It turns out the fight between Robin and Grima isn't completely over yet, but things aren't exactly getting any easier for the combatants, even if Mark has officially joined the fight. Can they make it out of their respective horrible situations in one piece, or are they all doomed to Grima's darkness?

Mark continued to sob quietly with his arms wrapped tightly around his knees. His body shook as several cold tremors wracked through him. Already he was feeling the effects of being separated from his Monado, no longer allowing it to provide him with the Ether he needed to survive. As a half human, half Homs, the Ether that his body made on its own was already proving to not be enough only a couple minutes after throwing the Parallel Monado away, and it wouldn't be long before he would become very sick and then pass away.

Before that happened, however, Mark's phone beeped with his text tone, and the vibration from the alert shook his entire body. It was enough to get Mark to uncurl himself to see what the message was. Surprisingly, the message was from Robin, which was enough to get the young Monado wielder to gasp as he frantically read the message he was given.

> 
>     From: Robin [555-7246]
>     
>     
>     [TXT] Come to the battlefield. The battle isn't over. Remember my favorite smash victory quote?

“...I'm always three steps ahead...” Mark whispered in a quiet voice. It took a moment, but then he realized just what that text message meant, and he smiled widely. “Robin's three steps ahead! He crashed Obsidian Face on purpose, didn't he?! Goddamn it, Robin, you're crazy, but you're a genius too!” As such, he crawled back over to the Parallel Monado, picking it up off the ground once more. Almost immediately Mark could feel the effects of the Ether radiating from his sword throughout his body, reinvigorating him and giving him strength to stand up straight again. After spending another moment to regain enough energy to feel perfectly healthy again, Mark hurried out of the room and into the labyrinth, trying to make his way to the battlefield as quickly as he could so that he could help Robin out.

\---

Back on the battlefield, Grima had opened up the cockpit of Obsidian Face to look inside at her defeated opponent. Sure enough, he was sitting there motionlessly in the seat that was used to control the Mechon. Grima smiled widely as she looked on, wrenching him out of the clutches of the machine's control unit without any care for whether or not she was hurting Robin. After doing so, she dragged him out of Obsidian Face and threw him to the ground in front of the Mechon before laughing evilly as she jumped down after him.

“Heheheh~” She laughed. “How does it feel, having your only chance to save your precious seer stolen away? Have you gone catatonic out of disbelief that your life now belongs to me?” It was at that moment that Robin's eyes flickered open once more and he struggled back to his feet before staring at the dragon's vessel with brave defiance.

“...You haven't won yet.” He growled. “I haven't given up...” Grima's confident smirk quickly became an angry scowl as she barked back at him.

“It doesn't matter if you haven't given up!” She yelled back. “That's not abiding by the terms of the wager that we made! I win because you failed to get a clean hit against me before I deactivated your stupid machine! As per our rules, you're not allowed to resist anymore!” Just then, Shulk began to scream in pain nearby as the dragon's vessel froze in place while her eyes started to glow purple. While Grima was frozen due to Vision Paralysis, Robin grabbed his Levin Sword and leaped forward to attack, slashing her across the chest as she stood there unable to dodge or parry. Grima screamed in pain and staggered backward after being hit by the attack, glaring at Robin angrily while trying to nurse the new wound.

“That's what I was waiting for!” Robin shouted before she could protest. “I wanted you to reaffirm our rules before I attacked you again!” His angry expression quickly became a confident smirk as he closed his eyes and snapped his fingers. A second later, the blackened eyes of Obsidian Face started glowing red again, and the machine roared back to life as it picked itself up off the ground. Grima gasped as she looked up at Obsidian Face with a combination of anger, confusion, and worry.

“...No!” She screamed. “You still lost, Robin! Why do you still resist?!”

“No, _you_ lost!” Robin's voice echoed through Obsidian Face, even though his body was still standing directly before the dragon's vessel. He was remotely controlling the giant machine and projecting his voice through it. “You said it yourself – I needed to get a clean hit against you before you deactivated Obsidian Face! As you can see, Obsidian Face is still functional, and I just got that hit I needed! That means you lose!” Grima gasped again as she took a step away from Robin as realization set in. A second later, she began screaming at him again.

“Cheater!” She shouted. “You cheated! Your so-called win doesn't count because you broke the rules! You're so weak, you can't win without bending the predetermined guidelines of the game!” Obsidian Face shook its head before Robin replied calmly.

“I didn't cheat.” He said. “What you're calling a cheat was merely a plan that managed to outsmart you. You underestimated my ability to concoct a strategy that would leave you wide open. First, I deliberately shut off all of Obsidian Face's systems after it was hit by your Thoron and feigned inability to resist while you removed me from the cockpit system so that you would lower your guard.” His voice quickly started to grow in intensity as he continued. “Next, I wanted you to reaffirm the rules yourself, so you couldn't go back on your word about what counted as a victory. I prompted you to give the terms of victory again just now, and you fell right for it! And lastly, my sudden plan to attack would activate Shulk's vision, and I'm well aware of how Shulk freezes up and has Vision Paralysis while he's witnessing a vision. Seeing as you were leeching off his powers, you ended up leeching off his weakness as well, allowing me the perfect opportunity to attack! I came up with this plan in an instant, and you fell for it hook, line, and sinker! You underestimated my prowess as a tactician! You lose, Grima! Now you must allow me and Shulk to leave this place without any further protest, as per our rules!” She laughed intensely before continuing.

“You idiot!” She shouted. “Did you seriously think that I would actually allow you to leave this place without protest?! I'll destroy you!” Grima snapped her fingers as a black tendril poked out of the ground and grabbed Robin's body before flinging him far away from Obsidian Face's frame. Seeing as Robin was currently controlling the Faced Mechon, the body crumpled into a heap after being pushed to the ground, unable to move. Another black tendril lurched up out of the ground and wrapped around the Mechon's frame, preventing it from flying toward the body it had been separated from.

“Agh! Let me go!” Robin's voice cried out through Obsidian Face. The machine's thrusters were firing at full power to try pulling away from the darkness that was holding it back. It failed to do so, as the dark magic held fast. At the same time, a large amount of Ether energy gathered in the black dragon's mouth, ready to fire. Grima's worried anger quickly became confident laughter as she gave her ultimatum.

“You choose, Robin! Your machine or your body! One of them will be destroyed by this next Monado Buster! Ahahaha!” Originally the energy was pointed at Robin's immobile body, with Grima hoping that would be enough to scare him into deactivating his remote control so that he could save himself.

“How about neither?!” Another voice came out of nowhere. At the same time, barriers of interlocking translucent yellow hexagons surrounded both Robin's exposed body and Obsidian Face. The Monado Buster that had been charged up turned and fired off at the Mechon, but bounced off the hexagons without doing any harm to the machine underneath. Obsidian Face had been protected by a Monado Shield. Grima was frustrated and confused, and she looked on with irritation as her black vine was hacked through by a sudden sword slash, freeing Obsidian Face and allowing the machine to fly over and pick up Robin's body off the ground so that the two pieces were no longer separated. Standing directly under where Obsidian Face had formerly been restrained was a figure in white and red holding a bright red blade and staring out at Grima with one glowing blue eye. Grima had to do a double take as she looked at this interloper.

“...Mark?!” She exclaimed. Surprise quickly became outrage a second later. “Do you know what you're doing, stupid boy?! What happened to wanting your entire family back together?! You're allowing your father to leave you again if you continue this madness!” Mark shook his head before replying.

“I've learned the truth.” He announced bravely. “My father never left me – he's been with me this entire time!” Mark brandished his Monado and posed so that Grima could see the center of the blade with its glowing blue **望** symbol. “He did the things he did in order to protect me from you for all these years, and now it's my turn to repay the favor!” Grima stood there in stupified shock for a second before she figured out what was going on and she smiled darkly at her son.

“...You've realized your full potential as a Monado wielder, haven't you?” She giggled. “You've finally achieved your true purpose! You are the Heir to the Monado with the Heart of Grima! I knew you were hiding your true power from me all this time!” After taking a moment to laugh evilly, the dragon's vessel continued. “...Did you seriously think that I didn't suspect something was up when Robin managed to dodge all those attacks my slave threw at him? To find out that the cause of such impressive dodging skill was none other than my son unlocking his true strength as a Monado wielder! Ahahaha! Come to your mother!” Several black limbs extended from the ground beneath Mark, but he managed to avoid being grabbed by any of them, jumping away and slashing as needed to not get captured again. His ringed eye was glowing blue again after that athletic feat was finished.

“I didn't unlock the power of my Monado for the purpose of serving you, Grima!” He barked back. “This power is for me to choose what to do with, and I'm going to use it to fight you for my freedom! I refuse to be associated with you as your son anymore!” Mark then cast a glance over at Robin to see what he was doing, noticing that his Mechon was hovering in place as normally as it could for having a bunch of its tail sheared off.

Inside Obsidian Face, Robin was settling back down after that threat against his life before. “Damage report, Obbie.” He ordered now that he had buckled himself back into his cockpit seat and reattached the control system after that whole incident before. “I want to know what kind of damage that Thoron did as well as that black thing that was holding me back before.
    
    
    “System integrity is at 87%. Electrical damage was mitigated when we were grounded. Vine did not cause any lasting damage.”

Robin was more than relieved to hear that Obsidian Face wasn't in any real danger of falling apart on him. After all, the fight was far from over even when he technically won. Grima was so angry about how Robin had tricked her that she wasn't going along with the order to let them leave without further protest. The tactician took a deep breath before he relayed his plan to the computer system.

“I'm going to go into the maw of that dragon hovering overhead.” He stated calmly. “If Grima isn't going to give me back the man I love without protest, I'll just take him back right under her nose.”
    
    
    “Master, I would advise against that. The entire dragon is saturated with Ether energy due to prolonged exposure to the Monado. Getting too close could end disastrously for both of us.”

“...I figured as much...” Robin sighed. He hadn't expected this plan to be easy, especially for a failed Core Unit. “I have to try though, Obbie. Mark has distracted Grima, so this is my one chance to go up and try to save Shulk. I came all this way to rescue him, and I refuse to go home without him.”

* * *

As much as Obbie knew that it was a terrible idea for the dark purple Mechon to fly itself into what was essentially a cloud of pure Ether energy, it was programmed to listen to its master. Robin had ignored its warning, and now there was nothing left to do but head straight into danger.
    
    
    “I will bring you as far as the mouth of the dragon, Master, but you will have to go inside yourself. I cannot go any further than that without having system integrity put at risk.”

“That's fine.” Robin nodded his head slowly in response to Obbie's compromise. “I have my drone wings still, so I'll fly in to look for Shulk myself.”
    
    
    “I would still advise you to use caution as you head inside, Master. Your Mechon body cannot withstand such a concentrated exposure to Ether for very long. I estimate that, beyond five minutes, your body may start to corrode from the acidic nature of the Ether.”

Robin winced visibly after being given that warning. He didn't know if five minutes was really enough to get in there and get out with Shulk while still keeping Ether damage to a minimum. Either way, he needed to risk it. This was his one chance to save the man he loved, and he was going to put all of his effort into that task.

“Very well. Let's go!” He activated the thrusters of the purple machine, which sped away toward the dragon created from pure energy that was looming overhead. The Mechon roaring back to life just before he flew off managed to catch the attention of Grima nearby, causing her to scowl fiercely and start spewing angry words at Robin.

“No you don't!” She barked. “I'll have my slave destro-- Ugh!” At that very moment, the dragon's vessel stumbled sideways and very nearly fell to the ground after being hit with a wind spell coming from that direction. Grima's face quickly turned back at her attacker, who was none other than Mark, standing bravely with both a wind tome of some type as well as the Parallel Monado in his hands.

“You didn't forget about me, did you?” He taunted, using a little magic to cause his weapons to spin around his arms as if he was using one of his taunts from the tournament before catching them a moment later. “We're still fighting, after all. If I've learned anything from the Smash tournament, it's that you never take your eyes off your opponent, or they'll take that opportunity to hit you at your weakest!” This accomplished the task of not only infuriating Grima more, but distracting her from Robin.

“You...” She growled, face quickly growing even crazier. “Of course I would never forget you, my amazing child! Once I've subjugated you, this multiverse will be mine! Two worlds' strongest powers in the palm of my hands! Nobody will be able to stop me! Ahahaha!” She spent a few seconds laughing before giving Mark an insane smile. “Now, come to your mother, Mark dearest!” Grima threw dark magic in her son's direction, trying to ensnare him. However, a second before the tendrils threw themselves onto Mark, his right eye flickered with a blue aura and he jumped out of the way of their attack, slicing away some smaller creepers that had bounced off the ground toward him while he was in midair. As soon as he touched back down onto the ground, he had to jump away from another attack. This continued on for a while, with the black haired tactician managing to distract his mother in this manner. Thanks to his Monado powers, he never felt like he was actually in danger of getting caught. This was the distraction that Robin needed.

While Mark danced and jumped around his mother's attacks, Robin had flown up next to the mouth of the dragon. Even now while he was sitting within the cockpit of Obsidian Face, he could tell that he was surrounded by powerful energy, and it was only going to get worse as soon as he popped the cockpit open and let the elements start taking their toll on his exposed body.

“...Guess it's now or never...” Robin sighed as he disengaged himself from Obsidian Face's control system. “Obbie, I'm leaving things to you. If it looks like I'm not gonna come back out, you fly down to where Mark is and help him out. He'll be your new master if I die.”
    
    
    “Please do be careful, Master. I may not be programmed to show any kind of emotion, but it will not feel the same serving Young Master Mark over you.”

Robin closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He couldn't believe that he was feeling bad about possibly leaving behind a machine that did nothing but follow its programming. He just had to come back out, preferably with Shulk in his arms. It was the thought that the man he loved would remain ensnared within the Ether for the rest of his life if nothing was done that propelled Robin into action, however, and he extended his drone wings before finally opening up the cockpit.

All at once, Robin was assaulted with powerful Ether, causing him to cringe and very nearly fall back down into his seat from the pure power that he was being accosted by. However, his determination was at an all time high, propelling him from Obsidian Face into the maw of the creature spawned from immense energy.

Robin knew how fast he was able to fly normally, and right now, his drones felt sluggish in comparison. It felt like a strong wind was pushing back against him, trying to keep him from pressing forward. Every now and again, the Ether dragon shifted slightly, threatening to throw the white haired tactician off his flight path and right into a cloud of pure Ether, which would more than likely disintegrate him in seconds flat. Robin had to readjust his flying in an instant so that he didn't get dissolved by the dragon, pressing on after doing so each time.

Eventually, after what felt like an eon, the tight 'neck' of the dragon opened up into the 'stomach', which had a lot more room to fly around, but the Ether exposure was almost stifling. Robin knew that he couldn't stay in here very long before his Mechon body would start being affected. Thankfully, the opening up of this new area also revealed to the white haired cyborg what he had been looking for. In the middle of the stomach area, black magic swirled down from the ceiling as well as up from the floor to wrap itself around a lone figure whose arms, restrained outward pointing toward the neck, held a bright red sword that was pointing its blue beam straight toward Robin. Every other second, the top and the bottom swirls of magic pulsated one after the other with red energy, as if to simulate a heartbeat. In fact, Robin was almost certain that these motions were creating a sound akin to a heartbeat, just making this whole situation even more unnerving for him.

Regardless, the figure in the middle of the dragon's 'heart' was none other than Shulk. His eyes were glowing bright red, and his teeth were gritted shut, as if this whole setup was hurting him. Robin's heart ached as he tried to imagine just what kind of pain maintaining such a powerful emanation by himself must have been causing the young seer. That only made the resolve to save Shulk from this situation even more solid.

“Shulk!” Robin called out at that moment, floating forward a little bit more. The 'heart' started beating faster, and the tactician could have sworn that he had heard a faint gasp between those unsettling heartbeat noises that had sped up. However, there was no other response. This of course, prompted a second try.

“Shulk!!” He cried out even louder, hoping that this time there might be a response. The heartbeat grew faster still, and the young Homs seemed to recoil slightly within his restraints. Like before, Robin heard nothing else. This certainly was not a natural reaction, as under normal circumstances, the seer would have definitely said something by now. Instead of trying to cry out again, however, Robin flew closer to the 'heart'.

Gingerly he reached out to lay one of his mechanical hands upon the strands that spiraled down from the ceiling, and they all but shriveled up to get away from his touch when they met their target. However, a scared scream came from Shulk after this contact, which had the immediate result of Robin removing his hand in fear that he was hurting the man he loved.

“Shulk...” Robin was practically right next to the blond's ear at this point, and all but whispered the name as tears started involuntarily rolling down his cheeks. “...What has she done to you?”

“...I am... a servant of the Fell Dragon Grima...” Shulk responded in a monotone voice. This response caused Robin to cry out in protest.

“No!” He sobbed. “No you're not! You're not a servant of anybody! You're Shulk Soss, Heir to the Monado and hero of Bionis! Please, don't let Grima's magic control you... You're stronger than this!”

The frightened scream a moment earlier had managed to get the dragon vessel's attention from outside the monster, and she looked over at the cloudlike figure floating nearby. It was at this point that she realized what Mark had been doing, and she was not happy about it. “Slave!” She shouted aloud. Mark attempted to distract Grima once again with magic, but her own magic sprang up to absorb the blows, allowing her to focus on the dark dragon without interruption from her son. “The failed vessel is there with you, is he not? Absorb him!” Mark screamed as he threw himself at his mother, trying to attack her and stop the order from being finished, but the magic that was defending her finally lashed out and tripped him up. The black haired tactician fell forward into a puddle of dark magic and felt vines creeping around his body to prevent him from getting back up again.

Grima's order echoed throughout the stomach, and it made Robin's heart do a nervous flip. She wanted Shulk to absorb him now? She had been so hell bent on trying to destroy him earlier, so now that he was within the Ether dragon, why did she change her mind and gave a different order? _Was_ it even a different order? While he was processing the change, dark vines lashed out from above and below, each wrapping onto a different limb of the cyborg tactician's, then pulling taut on those limbs so he could not move. Robin struggled for several seconds, even switching to remotely control his drones in an attempt to burn away the restraints. However, the magic retaliated by lashing out and grabbing the drones and pulling them into the vines so they could not move around.

Once it became clear the small machines were not going anywhere, Robin switched control back to his main body as a feeling of dread came over him. By this point, he could really feel the powerful effects of the Ether on his body, and figured that it wouldn't be long before the metal parts of his body began to dissolve from the corrosive effect of the Bionite energy. However, there was nothing he could do in his current helpless state but stare sadly into Shulk's blood red eyes.

“Shulk!” He was at the brink of despair, and feared that this would be the end of him one way or another, which resulted in loud sobs to find their way out of his mouth while tears streamed from his eyes. “Stop this, I beg of you! Please remember my love for you...!” At the same time, he now felt something having settled atop his head and was creeping downward while also feeling a similar sensation working its way upward, slithering across his exposed, synthetic skin. That only made him want to writhe around in discomfort, though his current condition wouldn't allow for it, and thus he did the only thing he still could do. “SHUUUULK!” Robin screamed at the top of his lungs in one last pathetic attempt to reach out to his dearest beloved before he was silenced by the dark magic forcing its way into his open mouth.

Outside, Robin's final scream could be heard, having echoed through the dragon, even as far as a whole different room back within the labyrinth where the dragon's vessel had now moved to. Grima was certain that this was a final cry of despair before he was fully absorbed, and it caused her to spend several seconds laughing evilly at her apparent victory. Once she had gotten her fill of evil glee, she turned to her left, staring out at what looked like a crucifix that had been erected with dark magic next to her. Tied to this sinister display by his outstretched arms and tied-together feet was Mark, and more dark magic arranged in the shape of the Mark of Grima but with the eyes closed was glowing an ominous purple around him, and it seemed to be making the poor black haired tactician cringe visibly in pain. His mother smiled darkly as she sauntered over to him.

“Does it hurt, my sweet son?” She spoke in a saccharine voice as she reached out and curled a hand gently around his cheek. “Don't worry, once we have you perform the Ascension, it won't hurt anymore~ You will replace me as the Fell Dragon's vessel, and that shall give my true form all the powers of the Monado! Heheheh~”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4437 words. This is a little off schedule due to some lethargy on my part, but next part should be right back on the adjusted schedule (meaning 2 days from now). However, I'm coming up on jury duty next week, so no guarantees of my posting schedule then. Notes:
> 
> 1\. Robin's phone number isn't random. "7246" if typed into an alphanumeric pad spells "RBIN", one letter short of Robin.  
> 2\. Mark's showing off one of his only advantages of being half Homs when he's jumping around his mother's attacks - he doesn't suffer from full Vision Paralysis due to only part of his body reacting to the Ether. Granted, the disadvantages outweigh this advantage greatly, but he can't be too underpowered or else he'll get nothing done.  
> 3\. The Ascension ritual that Grima's about to perform with Mark is highly headcanon based. However, I'll avoid explaining it here because it's addressed in detail next chapter.
> 
> How will he get out of this mess? _Will_ he get out of this mess? Stay tuned!  
>  4\. Regarding the whole vessel deal with Robin and Morgan, I've always interpreted it as Morgan also inheriting the Heart of Grima from their parent, so even though they're not the ideal vessel, they make a pretty good backup contingency plan. Or in this case, a good replacement due to other powers possessed. Mark is his realm's Morgan, after all.


	8. Reunion and Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everybody's in trouble with seemingly no hope for rescue. Is there any way that Robin, Shulk, and Mark can get out of their respective predicaments in one piece? Or is this the end for everybody?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning ahead of time: this part contains implications (even outright mentions in the end notes) of major spoilers to Xenoblade Chronicles. Turn back now if you don't want to get spoiled!

Robin was definitely starting to feel the negative effects of the Ether on his body now. Even though he couldn't feel it starting to destroy him, he swore he could hear the sound of the vulnerable Mechon metal sizzling as if it were water being boiled. Not only that, but one of the vines that was holding onto him had forced its way into the hole in Robin's neck. It felt like his thoughts and memories were being probed by this magic, and it was causing his head to ache as it started messing with him more and more. He was ambushed by intense emotions as the magic found his control schema and began activating them carelessly. Anger, emptiness, lust, protectiveness... Each toggling in random order and causing him to be unable to think straight, which, in a sense, was a fortunate distraction from the unnerving noise of his own body falling apart on him.

Robin was almost certain that, during the activation of his lusty schema, the protective plate on the underside of his frame had moved aside and more of the dark magic was ravaging him from the inside in both a sexual and a destructive manner, but he couldn't feel anything anymore. It was all becoming a void to Robin as he awaited complete absorption into the Ether. He stopped thinking about his rapidly changing schema and became absorbed in his own thoughts. This was the end, wasn't it?

As he anticipated his final moments, Robin began to think about everything that happened with him and Shulk. From the first moment he had met the young seer in the library and realized that his initial impressions from the introduction video were completely misguided to this whole journey to try and rescue the man he loved, bits and pieces started playing through his mind. All sorts of emotions came and vanished in mere instants as he reminisced – admiration toward Shulk's unique powers, fear that he may never see him again after being kidnapped, jealousy toward Obsidian Face getting all of his attention, sadness from when they had broken up briefly, and most of all, the powerful love he held for a man who had changed his life in many different ways. He didn't regret any of these events that had led to this final moment.

_Robin..._

A sweet sounding voice echoed gently in his ears. It was a voice that made him start to relax, as if this death would end up being a gentle one.

_Robin._

The voice grew louder, more determined. Even though the feelings of calmness didn't subside any, courage also started welling up in his heart. He wasn't afraid of what was to come next.

“ROBIN!”

That one wasn't a voice in his head. None of them were. They all had definitely come from somewhere nearby. The feeling of restraint upon his limbs began to subside and he felt like falling.

And then, a forceful pressure followed by an affectionate swiping of a fine, dry material against his stomach brought Robin back to reality. Shulk was clinging desperately to his stomach, head buried in the tactician's bosom. That soothing sensation of the fine material brushing against his chest had come from Shulk's thin golden hair rubbing against him as he nuzzled up close to the man he loved. The two of them were falling out of the sky now, as evidenced by the fact that they had gone through a hole in the Ether dragon's stomach and he could see the remains of that energy dissipating above him as well as the overwhelming sensation of gravity acting against his body. Now that he had snapped back to reality, Robin activated his remote control and searched for his drones. They had not been so damaged by the vines restraining them that they were still able to respond to his call and they zoomed over to him to attach to his back and stop him and Shulk from falling to their deaths. His body was also fortunately able to withstand holding onto Shulk's weight despite how much damage it had taken within the Ether.

“Shulk!” Robin readjusted his grip so that he could hold onto the young Homs better without fear of letting him slip out of his grasp as well as give him a worried yet affectionate hug while relieved tears rolled down his face. “Oh gods... I was so afraid I'd never get to hold you like this again...”

“Me too...” Shulk sounded like he was crying as well, though he was glad to be curled up in the safe grasp of somebody he truly loved. “I'm so sorry that I nearly killed you...” Robin sighed and kissed the other's forehead as they slowly descended back to the ground.

“There's no reason for you to apologize for that.” He spoke gently as they finally landed on the ground safely. “You were under Grima's control. It wasn't you who was trying to kill me, it was her.” Although, speaking of Grima controlling him, that brought up a good question. “How exactly did you end up breaking free of her control anyway?” Shulk finally looked up into Robin's eyes before he gave the answer to that question. His irises were still such a vibrant tint of red that they looked like they were glowing.

“You gave me the strength to fight it.” He explained softly. “As the Ether began to absorb you, I could see into your mind. After all, that whole magic dragon was pretty much an extension of the Monado's Ether powers, and it was trying to make you part of it.” Shulk reached up and placed his index finger onto Robin's forehead. “I was the one who was probing around in your mind. Grima had tried to suppress all traces of my love for you behind false memories of unquestioning obedience to her, but I was the one thing that stood out powerfully in your mind – admiration, fear, jealousy, sadness... but most of all, love. That was what I found. Such powerful emotions, all revolving around me. It was enough to cause those buried memories of mine to come back to the surface, and I knew at once that I had to save you.” Robin could feel an immense happiness welling up inside him as he pulled Shulk close again and hugged him firmly, making sure not to hold on too tightly and hurt his beloved.

“Yes, it's true...” He whispered into Shulk's ears. “I've felt so many things thinking about you... A whole rainbow of emotions... You've been such a huge influence on my life, to a point that I can't stop thinking about you. I came all this way because I couldn't bear to not have you in my life anymore. I'm so happy to have you back~”

Shulk gently pushed on Robin's stomach, as if to tell him to stop hugging him for a moment. The tactician complied, standing straight up again as he looked up into bright red eyes and waited for something to be said, trying to ignore the fact that he was looking at an almost completely naked man aside from a red teardrop shaped earring on his right ear standing before him. What was finally spoken sounded worried. “We're not out of danger yet...” The seer warned. “We're still imprisoned in this realm, and Grima's magic is still present in my mind, trying to make me forget about you again...”

“That's right...” Robin frowned. “Don't worry, I can mitigate the brainwashing magic as usual.” He reached into his robe and pulled out a purple tome. After taking a second to flip the book open to the page he wanted, Robin rested a metal hand against Shulk's bosom and it started glowing purple as he used the absorptive powers of the Nosferatu spell to drain the dark magic from the young Homs' body. Shulk closed his eyes and waited for Robin to finish his spell before continuing to speak.

“Thank you.” He sighed. Upon opening his eyes, it became clear that Robin's magic absorption had caused the color of his irises to change from bright red to indigo. That relief faded quickly, however. “But there's still more we must do before trying to find a way out of here. Mark is in trouble – I had a vision of Grima performing some kind of ritual with him. I saw her standing in front of him, and her insignia glowing around his body, but with its eyes shut. One by one, the eyes began opening...”

“...The Ascension...” Robin interrupted, growling with disgust. “She's trying to turn Mark into her new vessel. Naga only knows what will happen if Grima manages to finish the ritual and ends up harnessing the power of the Monado by taking over Mark's body...” Shulk curled his hands tightly around Robin's and shook them slightly.

“As Mark's father, I'm obligated to protect him.” Shulk frowned with determination. “Even if I wasn't, I would still try my best to save him because he's a good friend of mine.” Robin nodded in response.

“Yeah, agreed.” He smiled. “Whenever he hasn't been blackmailed into doing bad things by Grima, he's been a good friend. Plus, he's my former apprentice. I have an obligation to go after him myself.” Robin looked around the sky above the two of them. “...Obsidian Face should be around here somewhere. We'll be able to search the labyrinth faster if we can fly through it.” Thankfully, the walls of the maze were wide enough to fit a large metal dragon, else they'd be forced to search the labyrinth on foot. Robin's eyes changed color to gray as he reached out to his Mechon to come back over to where they were.

Several seconds later, the machine zoomed around above the two young men and lighted down in front of them. It then opened up the cockpit to allow the two to climb inside. There wasn't a lot of room on the interior of the Mechon, and so Shulk had to huddle up around the control seat as Robin sat in it to drive the machine.
    
    
    “Greetings, Master. From the added mass I detect, you have saved the Heir to the Monado and he is seated next to you, am I correct?”

“That's right.” Robin replied. “Shulk's safe, but now we have to save Mark. Do you detect him anywhere within the maze?”
    
    
    “Affirmative, Master. After the five minutes had elapsed since you entered the mass of Ether, I devoted my time monitoring Young Master Mark. Even though he was moved using magic, I was able to keep tabs on his Ether signature and I know where he is.”

“That's wonderful to hear!” Shulk interjected. “Obbie, please bring us to wherever Mark is being held! He needs to be saved quickly, or else we'll all be in trouble!” Thankfully for Shulk, he had had the foresight to reprogram the Mechon's interface so that it would respond to his voice as well as Robin's, and so the order was accepted without complaint.
    
    
    “Roger that, Heir to the Monado. I will bring you to Young Master Mark's location.”

Obsidian Face's thrusters quickly warmed up, and then the purple Mechon flew into the labyrinth as quickly as it would go. Using sensors to detect the placement of the walls, Obbie was able to navigate the maze without slamming into anything.

A minute later, the Mechon was floating outside a smaller room that it was not able to squeeze into.
    
    
    “Young Master Mark is within this room. I cannot enter because it is too small to fit me. You two must venture in alone.”

“Thank you for bringing us this far, Obbie.” Robin nodded as he opened up the Mechon's cockpit. “We'll take it from here. Come on, Shulk.” After being addressed, the Heir to the Monado stood up and allowed himself to be picked up by Robin so that he could jump out from the Mechon and land safely on the ground from the height they were at using the tactician's drones. Once they landed, Robin removed his tactician cloak and held it out toward for Shulk to take, who did a double take at being offered the cloak.

“...What's this for?” He asked, gingerly clasping one of the sleeves of the robe as he looked into Robin's eyes.

“You need this more than I do.” The tactician responded. “You're completely naked right now, after all. I'm fine having my Mechon body exposed.” It was at that moment that it dawned on Shulk that he was indeed stark naked, and he blushed fiercely. He swiped the cloak from Robin and bundled up in it the best he could.

“T-thank you...” Shulk's face was still bright red as he thanked Robin for the bit of modesty he had provided. A second later, he regained focus and stared into the room where Mark was. “Let's hurry. The Bionis only knows how much time we have before the ritual is completed and Grima will possess Mark and the powers of the Monado.” With that, Shulk and Robin entered the room hand in hand, ready to face whatever threat lay within.

* * *

The purple glow of the glyph around Mark's body gave a haunting presence to this room. It was a thin room with a high ceiling, definitely too small to fit Obsidian Face. Upon further inspection, it became clear that only two of the six eyes on the glyph had opened, meaning there was still time to disrupt the ceremony before Mark was completely consumed by Grima's magic and ended up being turned into the dragon's vessel. Not long after the two set foot in the room, however, a familiar voice called out to them from the other side of the room.

“You're still alive, Failed Vessel?” Grima didn't sound amused by Robin's presence, and then her glowing eyes turned to Shulk. “And you managed to save the Heir to the Monado as well, didn't you?” She took a second to chuckle evilly before turning all the way around to face Robin and Shulk. “Well, no matter. Once I defeat you two, I'll wait for the Ascension to end and use my new Monado powers to enslave you once more, Child Who Could Challenge the Gods. And then I'll have you put an end to your metal friend yourself.” This prompted the two to loosen up their stances, just in case they needed to dodge attacks that were about to be thrown at them. Before Grima did anything, Shulk shouted to her.

“I won't be your slave!” His hand reached up to curl around the earring attached to his right ear, ready to pull on it and return the Monado to a weapon form at any moment. “And I won't let you make me kill Robin! We've escaped from your control before, and we can do it again!”

“We came here for Mark, and to stop the Ascension!” Robin shouted in response. “Mark didn't awaken his Monado powers for your sake, after all!” Grima started laughing as she turned back toward Mark. As if on cue, the bottom eye on the left of the ominously glowing insignia shot open. After witnessing the eye open, Grima turned back to the young men.

“Little Mark has now passed the third trial of the Ascension ritual~” She teased. “The lengthiest trials have already been completed, so it won't be long now before the other trials are finished and I will harness the power of the Monado!” She laughed for a second before continuing. “One by one, he is surrendering each of his senses to me; I already have his taste, sight, and now his hearing and soon he'll relinquish his smell, touch, and finally... his heart~”

“Six pieces... one for each eye of the insignia...” Robin mumbled. “So when the fourth eye opens, you'll have his sense of smell under your control and so on...” At that moment, he reached into the robe Shulk was wearing and grabbed his Levin Sword and a thunder tome, brandishing them a second later. “In that case, we won't let you take any more of Mark's senses!”

Shulk responded by snapping his Monado off his ear, opening it up and letting the beam change color to a minty green. “We didn't come this far to just stand here and let you corrupt our friend!” Grima leered at him, confused about what he was planning.

“...What do you think you're going to do?” She asked. “Even if you jump over my head, that's not going to accomplish much. You still won't be able to get through to Mark.” Robin scoffed loudly as he brandished his Levin Sword.

“You need to learn more about the Monado's powers then.” He taunted. “For somebody wishing to control them, you don't know a whole lot about them~” His smug smile quickly turned into a determined frown as he then fired off a bolt of lightning from his sword. Grima responded by jumping off to the side and away from the incoming attack, but that was what Shulk was hoping she would do.

“For one, this colour doesn't represent Monado Jump, but _**Monado Purge!**_ ” As he said the name of the Art, a minty green beam was fired off from the Monado and swooped past Grima toward Mark. She gasped as she helplessly watched the insignia of purple magic quickly changed to the same hue as the Monado Purge before exploding into harmless green energy that rained down onto the surrounding area. At the same time, Mark screamed in pain as his body absorbed the Art, glowing green for a second before the light faded, and the crucifix of magic disappeared as well, meaning that Mark was finally released and he fell forward onto the floor in front of him.

“NO!” Grima screamed as she processed everything that just happened. “How dare you interrupt the Ascension! If I didn't need you for Mark's birth, I would kill you right where you stand! Instead, I'll just beat you within an inch of your life and let you witness your precious robot friend get eviscerated right in front of your eyes!” Tons of dark magic flooded into the room, quickly making the surroundings completely stifling. Both Shulk and Robin gasped for breath and fell to their knees from the powerful suppressing force as they watched walls of black magic close in toward them.

However, all of a sudden, a bright flash filled the room, depleting the heavy dark magic and causing the waves of darkness to fade into nothing. Grima, immensely confused, tried to turn toward the source of the light but was overwhelmed by the intense brightness, causing her to shield her eyes. Shulk and Robin as well needed to cover their faces, as the light was too much for their eyes to handle.

When the light finally faded to a more reasonable level, it revealed an awe-inspiring sight floating there in its epicenter. The glow was coming from Mark's back, where a pair of shining yellow-to-purple gradient wings that looked similar to circuitry as well as a matching yellow halo that was spinning slowly behind the White Mage's head had appeared. Mark was hovering several inches off the ground, with the new wings flapping gently as if to keep him aloft. Atypical of his visions normally, both of his eyes were also glowing an intense blue color, akin to when Shulk was subjected to his visions prior to his curse. Grima was the first to react to this new sight.

“M-Mark...” She was in complete shock at this new transformation. “What is this...? What have you become?!”

“Mark is... resting.” The black haired tactician had an unusual calmness to his voice as he spoke. From what he was saying, however, it didn't seem like Mark was talking, but rather somebody else. “You very nearly destroyed his soul with that ritual, dragon. I was forced to take over in order to preserve him.” The glowing blue eyes then focused on Shulk and Robin. “The two of you...” He said slowly. “You still have your usefulness to me. You need not stay here much longer.”

“...Excuse me?!” Grima was pissed. “Who the fuck are you, claiming that my prisoners can be set free?! Give me back my son!” With that, she fired off some dark magic at Mark, trying to knock him to the ground. However, he just flew out of the way of the magic before tugging on the Monado attached to his ear. Instead of its usual red appearance, however, the sword was gray with maroon and teal details as well as gray spikes coming out from the sides of the blade. With this sword, Mark fired off a beam at the dragon's vessel, causing her to grunt with pain upon being hit and flew across the room before collapsing in a heap.

“Mar... I mean... Whoever you are...” Shulk slowly stepped toward his possessed son's floating body a couple paces before stopping. By this point, the glowing blue eyes were facing directly toward him. “You said that you don't want us here much longer, but how do you expect us to get out of here? Grima set up a barrier to trap us in here and keep all the others out.”

“I will stay and ensure that this annoying lizard cannot go after you again, Shulk.” Mark said. “I will also open a new hole in the dimensional fabric so you can go through it.” He then turned to look at Robin. “You there. Mechon. You are in charge of bringing Shulk home.”

“I'm not just a Mechon.” Robin leered at the glowing figure. “That said, I want to get out of here as much as Shulk does.”

“Good.” Mark nodded. “Use your machine to fly through the hole I shall create for you.” Just then, there was the sound of annoyed screaming nearby as Grima pushed herself back to her feet.

“N-no!” The dragon's vessel groaned, apparently having trouble staying standing. “I cannot allow you to do that! Graaah!” She tried to fire off a spell at Mark, but it hit an invisible barrier that had been erected between her and the floating White Mage. Grima pushed herself over and tried to slam her body into the barrier, but she just was not able to break through.

“Do not worry about her.” The one controlling Mark's body said, still as calm as ever. “Now there is one last thing I must do before I open the way.” The spiky looking Monado was then fired off toward Shulk, a green Monado Purge colliding with his body and causing him to cry out in pain before collapsing backward.

“Shulk!” Robin screamed as he hurried forward to catch his lover before he fell over completely. Eyes flickered to red as he looked up at the man who had attacked Shulk. “What in Naga's name was that for, you glowy bastard?!”

“I have rid him of that curse on his body,” came the calm response. “You need not worry about him being corrupted slowly by dark magic anymore.” Upon hearing that response, Robin's eyes changed back to their normal brown hue as he looked down at the man in his arms. Even though Shulk had passed out from the Monado Purge, his eyes had remained open enough for Robin to look into them and notice that they had returned to their original cerulean blue hue. The white haired tactician looked up again a second later before giving his appreciation for that action.

“...Thank you.” He said calmly. “I've only been able to reduce the amount of dark magic in his body to a relatively small amount, but it was just too much for me to be able to destroy completely.”

“Hurry to your machine.” Mark's wings were starting to flicker, as if they were lightbulbs ready to burn out. “We do not have much time. Take Shulk and fly through the hole I am about to make.” Robin nodded briskly before he picked up Shulk's unconscious body and flew back to Obsidian Face. Once he was settled back in, Mark made a slashing motion in the air toward the entranceway where the Mechon was floating. Once the energy got to the doorway, it opened up to reveal a portal large enough for the dark purple machine to fly through. As this was all happening, Grima continued screaming and trying to bash the barrier down that was holding her back. She couldn't do anything but watch as her grand plan unraveled before her very eyes. A moment later, Obsidian Face had warmed up completely and flew through the rip, with the energy folding back in on itself immediately afterward.

Now that Shulk and Robin had successfully escaped the prison realm, Mark fired off a beam toward the sky, ripping a hole through the ceiling and changing the barrier's color from red and purple to yellow and white. Mark's wings and halo then disappeared, his Monado returned to its normal appearance, and the barrier holding back his mother finally vanished. The young Monado wielder promptly fell over again as his divine powers faded out, with his angry mother storming over to where he was resting.

“...You stupid fool.” She growled. “You've doomed yourself, you know. Without your father, you will die. There is no point possessing your body now, as you will fade from existence in a matter of months, and I refuse to fade away with you.” Grima then looked up through the new hole in the ceiling. “...I can't believe this. You gave your father back to Robin and then sealed the two of us into this realm together...”

“...Heh~” Mark's eyes were still closed and his voice sounded tired, but he had a small smile on his face. Upon hearing his voice, the angry dragon vessel glared back down at him. “That was the plan... I made up for my mistake of giving him to you in the first place. He sacrificed his life for me... And now it's my turn to return the favor~” His mother promptly kicked him in the stomach in her fury.

“I'm going to make these last few months of yours living hell, you reject bastard child!” She growled. “This is your punishment for your ultimate betrayal!”

“Nothing you can do to me can destroy the satisfaction I have for saving my father from a bitch like you!” He howled back, laughing like a madman. “Mutilate me all you want! I'll muster through it all by thinking back on how I foiled your plans! Ahahaha!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4444 words. So that's that for Grima's plan. Talk about a deus ex machina... literally. But that's also pretty much curtains for poor Mark. It's a good thing he has no regrets about what he did. And now to talk about the elephant in the room.
> 
> 1\. I told you I was aware of what it meant by Mark being a Monado wielder. It was the setup for this deus ex machina by none other than Bionis' god, Zanza. Like Shulk before him, Zanza is the one providing Mark with life force, and thus it was Zanza who was being corrupted by the Ascension for the most part, hence the purple gradient on his wings. And yes, that spiky gray Monado is supposed to be the true appearance of the Bionis' Monado, in case it wasn't clear.
> 
> When Future Shulk sacrificed himself, he returned Zanza's soul to the Parallel Monado, who then took over little Mark when he received the weapon to sustain his life. ~~So Shulk's sacrifice to save his son from dying at an early age was really for naught.~~ And thus Mark just took over where Shulk left off in terms of being Zanza's vessel.  
>  2\. Yes, Mark's really never going to see Corrin or his child again because of the seal Zanza placed. I know, it's sad, but the kid's surely going to be cared for by his grandfather instead.


	9. White and Red Wedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin and Shulk are finally free from Grima's trap, all thanks to Mark's sacrifice. Now it's a matter of ensuring that no lasting damage has been done to either of the two young heroes and then a promise several months in the making can finally be fulfilled in memory of the brave young man who made it all possible.

The Smashers that were still trying to bash through the barrier in vain were surprised when it suddenly changed color before their very eyes. It still was as impenetrable as ever, but thankfully they didn't have to worry about trying to bust in much longer after the fact, as a rip opened up before everybody and Obsidian Face came flying out. The others immediately reinstated contact with the Mechon's communication system as it flew out, trying to get the details on what had happened since Robin disappeared through the barrier.

“I'll explain everything once we get back to the mansion.” He explained. “I have Shulk with me, and I want him to get looked over as soon as possible.” Even though the Heir to the Monado had been well enough to fight by Robin's side when they went to save Mark, the tactician still wanted to make sure that no lasting damage had been done during that whole time he had been kidnapped. Realizing he had a point to his concerns, everybody allowed Robin to quickly make his way back to the infirmary unhindered.

After Shulk was carefully looked over for any kind of lasting effects on his body, it was determined that the curse that had been present on his body had indeed been eradicated, much to the surprise of the doctors. In fact, he was perfectly healthy in spite of everything. All they had to do was wait for him to reawaken from having been knocked out with that Monado Purge and everything would go back to normal. Shulk was taking his time to reawaken, however, and this was when Robin decided to inform the others as to what had happened inside the barrier.

Robin spoke at length about Daraen, with one of the first things he talked about being the fact that Daraen wasn't even his real name, but rather that it was a pseudonym he had adopted to make himself seem less suspicious to Master Hand and the Smashers, as it was a legit name used by the Avatar of Grima in another timeline. Everybody was a bit surprised to find out that the real name of “Daraen” was Mark Lowell-Soss, and that he was the future son of Shulk and a Grima-possessed Reflet. The most surprised of anybody at the mansion was his half-sister, Lucina. She hadn't even been aware that she even had a half-brother, even though it explained why her baby counterpart had been attacked a couple weeks ago.

There was one individual who was especially concerned with the fact that Mark didn't come home, however. It was none other than his fiancee, Corrin. She pushed her way through the crowd and started crying. “W-what do you mean Dari's not coming home?” She sobbed, placing one hand on her stomach. “What about our baby?! The baby needs their father!” Several Smashers stared at Corrin and gasped. After all, not all of them knew about the fact that she was pregnant. Realizing that she had just spilled the beans to everybody, Corrin blushed and tried to avoid everybody's judging eyes. “Y-yes, that's right!” She stated defiantly. “I was intending to marry Daraen... or Mark, I guess... I wanted to marry him so that our child would not be born out of wedlock! Now the baby's going to be born without a father!” Robin frowned as he reached out to grab Corrin's hands.

“He might be without his father, but he won't be without family.” He tried to sound as comforting as possible. “After all, if your baby's father really is Mark, that means Shulk is their grandfather. I know Shulk will help take care of his grandchild.” Corrin looked up into Robin's eyes with concern.

“...Does Shulk even know he's going to be a grandfather yet?” She asked. A look of shock came over the tactician's face when he realized that his lover wasn't aware of any of this at all.

“Oh gods...” He whispered. “I have no idea how he's even going to react to being a grandfather... I guess we'll find out when he wakes up...” Who knew how long that would take, though?

\---

It was several hours later when a Toad came out of the infirmary and hailed Robin down, trying to get his attention. “Shulk's finally awake again!” The little mushroom man cheered, his high pitched voice seemingly even higher than before out of happiness. “He's looking for you, Robin. You should go see what he wants from you.” The tactician didn't even hesitate. He quickly bolted into the resting room and looked around for the man he loved, smiling widely when he saw a pair of bold, cerulean blue eyes staring back at him. In fact, Robin very nearly tackled Shulk off the cot he was sitting upon as he embraced the young Homs, overcome by a flurry of emotions. Among them all, however, his happiness toward having Shulk back again was the strongest.

“I missed those beautiful blue eyes of yours...” Robin sighed into Shulk's ear. “I was worried that I would never see them again in that color. But now... Everything's back to normal.” Shulk pushed back against Robin's stomach, trying to get him to stop hugging for a second so they could look into each other's eyes properly.

“It's not normal...” Shulk looked somewhat sad. “Normalcy died long ago... I'm almost certain that Grima did terrible things with my body while I was captured and you weren't there to protect me.” He was now refusing to look Robin in the eyes as he spoke even quieter. “I had been hoping to wait until you were able to recover your human body before I gave you my body, but that purity is gone now... You don't deserve used goods...” Robin shook his head in response and then tightly hugged Shulk again.

“Shulk, I don't care if you've had a hundred partners before me or none.” He spoke with an underlying sadness to his voice. Of course he was aware that Shulk was waiting for the right moment, but that had all been snatched away during the kidnapping. Still, that hadn't been the reason he stayed. “If anybody doesn't deserve used goods, it's you. I've had way too many things happen to me that I didn't like, after all.” He then shook his head. “The thing is... I didn't fall in love with you because I knew you were pure. I fell in love with you because you exceeded all my expectations – you've proven time and time again just how kind and selfless yet powerful and bold you are.” After a moment of silence, he continued. “Besides... there isn't going to be a recovery of my human body.” Shulk did a double take and pushed Robin off him again after hearing that.

“W-what?!” He exclaimed. “I thought Master Hand was trying everything he could in order to restore your body to its original human state! How could he have failed?!” Robin closed his eyes.

“Master Hand didn't fail – in fact, I could actually recover my human body right now if I really wanted to.” The eyes opened again as he continued. “It's not a matter of whether it's possible anymore. It's a matter of whether I want my human body back or not... And I realized... I don't.” Shulk was absolutely stunned by this reveal.

“You... don't want your human body anymore?” He repeated, dumbfounded. Robin placed a hand over his heart.

“Not anymore, no.” He sighed. “It's just... I realized just how wonderful my life has become ever since I was given a robotic body. I'm not just an ordinary guy who just happens to also be a master strategist anymore. Before losing my body, that's what I felt like the only notable part of me was.” The metal hand came off his chest as Robin began gesticulating. “Afterward, I became something unique. I was a master strategist who also had a body that was almost entirely made of metal, and I had gained the powers of flight, near-invulnerability, and control over a giant metal dragon as a result of this transformation!” Finally, he sighed once more and placed both hands over his heart. “Now that I'm used to this... I don't want to give it up. I can't believe I'm saying this, but... I love being a cyborg.” Shulk sat there in surprise for another minute before a wide grin plastered itself onto his face and he threw himself onto Robin to give a big hug.

“I'm so glad you've finally come to love your body!” He giggled. “I've loved you regardless of whether you had a human or a Mechon body, and I wanted you to love your own body as well. I was expecting you to give up your Mechon body and find a new appreciation for your human body once it was recovered, but this works just as well~” After the initial shock of practically being tackled wore off, Robin finally reciprocated the affection. They stayed like that for a moment before Robin changed topics slightly.

“Oh, that reminds me.” He pushed gently against Shulk's chest so that they were face to face again. “While you were unconscious, Corrin and I had a conversation that you should really be privy to.” Shulk blinked once in confusion before speaking.

“Corrin?” He repeated. “I take it was something having to do with Mark, seeing as she loved him so much.” Robin scratched the back of his head.

“Yeah, about that...” The tactician mumbled. “The night before you were kidnapped, Corrin actually proposed to him, and he agreed. What he didn't realize was her reason _why_ she had asked for his hand in marriage out of the blue – she's actually pregnant with Mark's child.” Shulk did a double take at this news.

“What?!” He exclaimed. “Corrin's bearing Mark's child?!” Shulk's face went white as realization quickly set in. “Holy Bionis! That means... I'm going to be a grandfather! By the time the baby is born, I'll be nineteen... but at the same time, I'll be a grandfather at nineteen years old! May the Bionis smite me where I stand...” The poor seer looked like he was about to faint from this news, and Robin frowned.

“You'll take care of your grandchild like they were your own son or daughter, right?” He said. “That baby is being born without a father, after all. Seeing as you're their family either way, you should help Corrin out. Will you?” A second of deliberation was spent before Shulk nodded.

“Yes, of course.” He stated. “I won't abandon my family. In Mark's absence, I'll take care of his child like it were my own.” Robin sighed and softened up after Shulk's promise to take care of his grandchild before moving his right hand up near his bosom.

“You know,” he began, “perhaps we should think about doing something about that promise we made several months ago. That way, I can also help as family to your grandchild.” He was staring at the beautiful ring that was affixed to his metal hand now that it was within his vision. As soon as the tactician had brought their promise to attention, Shulk looked at his own hand. Sadly, seeing as Grima had tried to erase any memories that he had of Robin in her attempts to brainwash him, that meant the ring that served as a constant reminder of their love had been removed as well. The custom made band was likely lost in the void, possibly even destroyed by now.

“My ring is gone...” He mumbled in a melancholy way. “I'm sure it's completely impossible to recover it as well at this point...” Robin shook his head.

“That's all right.” He said. “I can always just find you a brand new ring for the big day. Sure, it won't be a homemade masterpiece by you, but the sentiment is still there, right?”

“Yeah, I suppose so...” Shulk closed his eyes. “So, Robin... If we were to go through with the ceremony, will you hear out a strange request from me?”

“What's that?” Robin pushed back a little to look at Shulk's face, his own contorted in confusion. After another moment, the cerulean blue eyes opened again slowly.

“I want the theme of the ceremony to be white and red.” He said succinctly. “Mark is the only reason why we're both standing here, after all. I want him to be remembered as a hero, not a villain. I don't want him going down in history as a kidnapper. I want him to be recognised for the efforts he made to rectify his mistake and fight against the force that was making him do terrible things. I know he hurt both of us in many different ways, but in the end, he was just doing what he thought would bring his family toge...” Robin placed a finger on Shulk's lips to silence him before shaking his head slowly.

“Say no more.” He said calmly. “To be honest, I was kind of wondering how we should honor his sacrifice myself. But now that you've brought that idea up, I'm all for it. It'll be a wonderful way to remember him.” Robin then lowered his hand and Shulk gave an earnest grin. He was glad that Robin had agreed to the idea so quickly.

\---

Over the next few weeks, many preparations were made for the upcoming ceremony. Many of the other Smashers and plenty of the Assists wanted to help however they can, and with all of their assistance, they managed to make it so that the preparations were done far sooner than they would have been if the two lovebirds had tried to organize everything on their own. Now, it was the day before the big ceremony, and everybody was so excited. It was then that a large box had come in through the mail addressed to Robin. Before he tore into the box, the tactician decided to read the attached letter.

> _Dear Robin,_
> 
> _Many congratulations on your upcoming big day! We hope that this package makes it to you before the ceremony, as we would be honoured if you could wear this frame during it to represent us. And, of course, enclosed is also the replacement frame that you requested. There's no additional cost for the second frame, by the way – consider it a gift from us!_
> 
> _All the best,_
> 
> _the Machina of the Fallen Arm_

Robin gasped after reading the letter. He had only sent a commission out to the Machina after realizing just how badly damaged his current frame had been as a result of prolonged exposure to the Ether during Shulk's rescue and he needed a new frame that didn't have its durability compromised. Instead, the Machina had sent the frame he wanted and then some. Upon opening the package, Robin found a sleek, beautiful red frame whose torso looked a lot like a tuxedo. There even was a fake bowtie attached to the neck and pieces of metal coming off the back to look like coattails. Robin had only mentioned his betrothal in passing, so the fact that his friends on the Fallen Arm had done this for him was a very touching gesture. It even almost brought him to tears. Of course he would wear this tomorrow!

And so, the big day arrived. Robin had disappeared early that morning in hopes that somebody could help attach the pieces of the new frame that he wanted to wear without Shulk seeing what he looked like ahead of time. This was made clear to the Monado wielder from a note left behind on the kitchen counter in their suite, so that he didn't worry. Either way, Shulk had plenty of preparations to do himself before things got going.

And then came the moment everybody was waiting for. A huge crowd had gathered into the chapel that had been reserved for this big day. Everybody was wearing red, white, or both, and the decorations were all strung up in the two colors. Shulk came out first in a crisp white tuxedo that had several red accessories pinned to it, and then Robin finally came out not long after in the flashy red frame that the Machina had given him. Just the sight of the tactician in such a lovingly crafted frame was enough to bring the Monado wielder almost to tears. The ceremony went without a hitch, and they both agreed that this was the happiest day of their lives.

“Here's to years of happiness together~” Robin smiled widely as he exchanged a long, passionate kiss with the love of his life. The crowd went wild as they watched the newlyweds show their affection.

“I just wish Mark was here to see what his heroic actions had resulted in.” Shulk sighed after the kiss ended. “He would have loved this ceremony.”

“I'm sure that he's proud regardless.” Robin's smile had a hint of melancholy under it as he thought of the White Mage. “He was dead set on saving you, after all. You should have seen the determination in his eyes when he fought me. Really reminded me of you, actually. It was at that moment that I knew he really was your son.”

“Seriously?” Shulk was surprised by this reveal. “You hadn't told me you had fought against him.”

“Did you think I would work again with him easily so soon after he had kidnapped you?” The tactician frowned. “I was actually going to kill him for what he had done, but he managed to best me in a fair battle.” Robin gently grasped a hand around Shulk's and started walking with him back up the aisle, his serene smile having returned as he finished his story. “That boy is your son through and through. He will be missed.”

And so Robin and Shulk joined the after-ceremony festivities and spent the rest of the night celebrating their love and the man whose sacrifice had made it all possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3007 words. This is pretty much the end of the story, with Chapter 10 being a short epilogue. The most explicit part is actually in the epilogue too, and I'd say it's worthy of the E rating when 95% of the rest of the story really isn't. After the epilogue goes up, I'll continue working on Ballad of the Azure Dragon again to finish that up and then after that I'm not entirely sure. Will I try working on Mechonis Mission Zero again? Will I write something sequentially between BoAD and this story? Will I write a story about Corrin and Mark's child? I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. But yeah, final notes:
> 
> 1\. "They" pronouns are being used for Corrin's child because nobody knows what gender they are yet. After all, the baby's been in gestation for about a month or two tops by this point, which isn't far enough along for gender to be determined. Originally I had written this out with "it" pronouns before being chewed out by my agender friends. Didn't realize there was a distinction, but whatever, I'll be as politically correct as possible here.  
> 2\. It's not mentioned at all anywhere else, so here's where I'll say that Robin's new frame (the one that's not the wedding gift at least) is pretty much identical to the Speed Frame he was using before. He liked how it fit on him, and thus he ordered another of the same type.


	10. Epilogue: The Other Side of a Happy Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin and Shulk had a happy ending, but what about Mark? What kind of ending did he get as a result of his sacrifice?

A pair of chocolate colored eyes had flickered open slowly, a green ring dully glowing in the pupil of the right eye. Eyelashes splashed blood away from the now exposed irises, but the crimson liquid ran down the ghostly pale face all the same. This room was dark, as the only source of light was a eerie purple insignia that was glowing. Even then, the young male's eyes refused to take in light despite the fact that they were open. Mark was as good as blind now due to the curse that had taken hold on his body.

 _You've awakened..._ A voice hissed in the boy's head. His hands shook against their binds in vain at the sound of the words dripping with malice. _Does it hurt, child? To have everything robbed from you?_ The voice took a moment to laugh before continuing. _Your pain doesn't even begin to measure up to what pain you've given me. It will take years of suffering for you to feel what I felt by your betrayal. It's just too bad that you won't survive that long..._ A hand curled around his cheek, and the sensation felt like a million bees stinging all at once. Even the gentle action of slowly having his neck turned felt like whiplash. Suddenly, color pierced through the immense darkness, but only a bright red of six angry eyes piercing into his soul could be seen. _I control you._ The voice hissed. _You've surrendered everything to me._

“...Not everything.” A voice that was weak in tone but strong in spirit came from Mark's lips. “You will never be able to control my heart.” Even though Mark couldn't see it, he knew that five of the eyes of Grima's brand were suspended in front of his body. His mother had restarted the Ascension ritual, but only went as far as destroying his senses before stopping. He was now only capable of seeing what Grima wanted him to see, hearing what she wanted him to hear, and so on. As such, she allowed the young tactician to hear her evil laugh echoing inside his head.

“You heard what I said before...” She hissed. “There's no point in taking your heart, as I won't fade away with you when your body ceases to exist. If it weren't for that stipulation, I'd have destroyed your spirit by now.” A loud sigh could be heard. “I was giving you such a wonderful deal in this as well, Mark. You were to bring me your father, I was to reassure your birth in this timeline, and then I would bestow upon you ultimate power. Why did you reject me?” Mark's eyes closed again before he spoke.

“Lies, all of them.” He mumbled. “You weren't going to give me anything but your darkness. It wasn't going to be all that different than this, only instead of having some semblance of control over my body still, you would have pushed me to the back of my own mind and imprisoned me there to witness all the terrible things you would do with my body, helpless to fight against you.” A dark sigh echoed in Mark's mind.

“You really are your father's boy.” She groaned. “Belligerent until the very end.” The sensation that was akin to a million bee stings shifted from Mark's chin, making its way slowly down his body until it stopped just above his pelvic region. This was very uncomfortable for the White Mage, and he thrashed about from the sensation, not realizing that he was cutting into his wrists with the binds that were tightly holding him in place. It was only when Grima allowed him to feel the warm blood running down his bare arms that Mark realized he had done such a thing, and so he stopped. Once the thrashing ceased, Grima's voice echoed again. “Of course, there's more than one way to make your body mine...”

“S-stop it...” Mark groaned, trying to resist crying from the pain on his stomach area by hyperventilating. “Whatever the hell you're planning, I want none of it!” Just then, the sensation quickly changed, becoming a soothing heat rather than the painful pricking from before. The young tactician's breath slowed for a moment, only resuming a rapid, fearful pace when the heat moved down to the base of his penis. It was at this moment that Mark had figured out what his mother was planning, and it scared him.

“Such a beautifully sculpted body~” Grima sighed. “The strength of youth shaping you into a fine specimen. Any woman would have wanted a perfect body like yours, Mark. It's no surprise that you managed to woo that dragon girl. Of course, had she realized that you're already used goods, she would have rejected you. But as they say, a mother's love knows no boundaries~”

“T-that was no fault of my own!” The black haired male stammered, afraid of what he knew would come next. “You made no efforts to protect me back then either! You don't love me – you've never loved me! And Cory would have loved me regardless, I just know it!”

“Nonsense~” The dragon's voice was sickeningly sweet. “I've loved you from the moment you were born from my own bosom~ I've loved you more than your father ever did...”

“SHUT UP!” Mark screamed, tears rolling down his face as he thrashed about again in a vain attempt to escape, even ignoring the feeling of fresh blood on his arms this time. “You can't understand the magnitude of his love for me! You'll never understand him or the power of the Monado! Aaaagh!” The warm sensation moved further up the shaft, causing Mark to scream out in terror. He didn't like where this was headed at all.

“That's no way to talk to your mother, Mark~” Grima continued using that saccharine tone with him. “You've been a very naughty boy. Naughty children deserve to be punished~”

* * *

“ _...lk! Shulk! Wake up!”_

The Monado wielder awakened in a cold sweat at that moment, staring straight into warm, chocolate brown eyes that were tinged with concern.

“...Robin...” Shulk muttered as he tried to catch his breath now that he was lucid. “What on Bionis?” The tactician's eyes narrowed slightly as he spoke.

“You tell me!” He exclaimed. “You were muttering things in your sleep and you started breathing heavy. I thought you were dying on me or something.” Metal arms wrapped around the seer's back and Shulk immediately started to calm down now that he felt safe. It took a while, but once Shulk had completely calmed down, he decided to tell Robin as to what he had seen.

“I don't know how, but I was connected to Mark through my dreams.” He said quietly. “Mark's not in good condition. Grima restarted the Ascension ritual with him, but cut it off before consuming his heart. She's disabled all of his senses, only allowing him to see, hear, or feel what she wants him to. I could only gather information from what she had allowed Mark to receive, as if I was in his shoes.”

“...That's quite alarming – both your connection to Mark as well as what Grima's subjected him to...” Robin frowned at the news. He had no reason to doubt what Shulk was saying. The blond seer looked away.

“That's not the worst of it...” He mumbled. “You see... Grima's still very angry at what he did to save us. Worse still, she's not above molesting and even raping her own child...” That thought made Shulk sick to his stomach, and the look on Robin's face betrayed the fact that he was feeling similarly.

“...Unbelievable...” Robin stared at the floor. “I can't believe we just left Mark to that fate... Is there no way to save him?” Shulk shook his head.

“You know as well as I do that Mark sealed away that realm.” He stated sadly. “There's no way for anybody alive now to get in or out. It's unfortunate, but I'm afraid we have to leave Mark to suffer. There's absolutely nothing we can do. At the very least, his suffering won't last too long, as his conception won't happen and he'll disappear...”

“It's not fair though!” Robin shouted. “Nobody deserves that kind of fate! Tortured until your very birth is undone?! Dammit!”

“...Actually, Robin... There might be something we _can_ do to save Mark.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“We can give him a better life.” Shulk stated with an intense seriousness. “It's not his birth that we need to prevent – it's his upbringing. If Mark is raised in a loving environment, he won't suffer anymore.” Robin took a moment to process the thought, but then he briskly shook his head.

“...Shulk, are you completely out of your mind?!” He protested. “Don't you realize that means you'd have to get Reflet pregnant? I know Chrom's our friend, but I seriously doubt he'd allow you to get his wife pregnant! Besides, after Lucina's birth, it's likely she'll never be able to carry another child successfully! The doctors mentioned how messed up her insides were, after all... And on top of it all, Reflet is human! She can't support bearing a half Homs child!” Shulk frowned and looked down at the floor.

“...You're right.” He sighed with defeat. “It's an absurd idea. All I wanted was to save my son, though...” Robin brushed a piece of hair out of Shulk's face and kissed his forehead before speaking again.

“You really love Mark, don't you?” He had calmed down again by this point. “Him telling you that he's your son really kicked your paternal instincts into high gear, huh? You're such a doting father...” Shulk couldn't help but blush.

“Well, Mark did say that his father sacrificed his own life to save his child and give him the chance to grow...” He chuckled. “Guess not having a father of my own made me want to be as best a father as I can be to make up for it.”

“I'd rather not have a father than have the one I did have.” Robin growled, thinking back to Validar for a second before softening up again and finishing his thought. “But I see the logic in what you're saying.” Shulk smiled as he brushed his head against Robin's bosom affectionately.

“I think you'd be a wonderful father yourself~” He sighed. “Severa and Morgan were probably very lucky to have you as their father.” Robin frowned at the thought of his two daughters that he had mistakenly killed.

“...I don't know about Severa, but Morgan looked up to me a whole lot before she disappeared.” He sighed sadly. “As much as I'd love for us to start our own family, we're both male. Even then, my body isn't capable of reproducing anyway.” That was one downside of being a cyborg. Shulk snuggled up against Robin's bosom.

“It's all right.” He sighed. “We have my grandchild to help take care of in the meantime. We'll help Corrin raise them like they were our own when they're finally born.” Shulk rubbed his hair against Robin's chest again. “For now, I just want you to get used to being Robin Soss, okay?” Robin giggled and pushed the two of them onto the bed again.

“Gladly~” He laughed. “Anything to distance myself from Validar.” And thus the two of them snuggled up in bed again and slept peacefully for the rest of the night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1910 words. And now this is the official end of the story. This is late because I got hung up in court as a juror for the past three days. But yeah, poor Mark. Maybe he'll get his redemption in a future story. One note:
> 
> 1\. Even though Mark is considered an adult in Homs culture (as mentioned prior in the story), he's still underage in the US, and thus the underage archive warning. Seeing as the story's finished, I put up all the proper tags now, so no more "author chose to not use warnings".


End file.
